


Homemade Dynamite

by TheNewBohemianQ



Series: When the lions come [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alpha/Omega Dynamics for Galra, Argentinian Original Character (Voltron), Aromantic Asexual Pidge | Katie Holt, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Blood and Gore, Cuban Lance (Voltron), F/F, F/M, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Galra!Keith, Hawaiian Hunk (Voltron), Homosexual Keith (Voltron), Homosexual Original Character (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Underage Drinking, Japanese/Brazilian Shiro (Voltron), Korean Keith (Voltron), Limerence, M/M, Minor Character Death, Mutual Pining, Original Character - Freeform, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pack Dynamics, Panic Attacks, Pansexual Original Character (Voltron), Polyamorous relationship, Post Season 1, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Slow Burn, Spying, Torture, Transgender Original Character (Voltron), UA, Underage Drinking, Universe Alteration, What even is Allura's sexuality???, abusive families, abusive teachers, it just gets darker as you go on, mentions of torture, not that I think you'll complain, so much cuddling and so many Hamilton references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-26
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2018-08-14 22:13:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Rape/Non-Con, Underage
Chapters: 33
Words: 227,900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8030779
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheNewBohemianQ/pseuds/TheNewBohemianQ
Summary: The Voltron team miraculously gets together again, with Keith at the verge of death. This sets panic running through everyone's veins, and Shiro thinks that they should hide until the water settles and then attack. They're not powerful enough after all.But then Coran comes up with a useful piece of information: There's a sixth robot, for a sixth paladin.Turns out that the Earth is not that uninvolved with this intergalactic war as they all thought and that everyone lies a little bit more than they like to admit, and the crew of the Castle of Lions (that continues to grow bigger) find themselves wrapped in a business of lies and betrayal that started more than ten thousand years ago.Some people believe that history has been written already, and everything seems to be heading downhill. Does this mean that the crew will have a sudden boost and save everyone out of the blue? Or does this mean that the only way to go is crashing down as they cling to the walls of an abyss?





	1. Before you go down into this hellhole.

Well, well, well...

Here's the deal. This novel used to be paused because I started rewriting it from zero because my writing used to be so tacky back then, and I said "Huh, until I don't finish cleaning my act up I won't publish". I cleaned my act, the whole novel is already outlined, along with the second part of the series. The only reason I'm not deleting the older chapters is because I might need them for reference sometime.

This part of the series "When the lions come" is planned to have either 10 or 11 chapters (depending on how long chapter 8 ends up being and if I have to split it up).

If you want extra content, or want to be notified when I upload, or you simply want to chat or get in contact with me, you have my Tumblr, my Twitter and my Instagram.

Tumblr: @thenewbohemianq  
Twitter: @callmequims  
Instagram: @mpatchfhq

Comments and kudos are HUGELY appreciated. If there are any questions you have or want to submit some headcanon or theory or art or whatever, you can contact me on my social media or in the comments. I try to answer as fast as I can.  
Also, please remember that I'm Argentinian, so Spanish is my first language, not English, and that this is a Universe Alteration so, despite it being in based in the canon universe, it won't follow the canon strictly (basically I can do whatever I want, it's my fanfiction after all).

Anyways, I hope you enjoy this :*


	2. Introduction.

"With a blow, they rise oceans,  
With a stump, they shatter the ground.  
They will stand strong like a tree,  
And burn worlds with a snap of their fingers.  
Clap their hands once and they bend the skies.  
Clap their hands twice and Death's companion will appear.

You better run from the crashing waves,  
Better avoid the shaky soil.  
Don't stop listening to the forest proclaiming your death softly,  
Nor think a mere spark won't burn you alive.  
Pay attention to the stars, and the electricity in the air,  
Because they are the lionhearted and the panther-souled.

They are the paladins of Voltron, defenders of the universe,  
And whoever stands in their way, better give themselves for dead."


	3. I'm fired up and tired of the way that things have been.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, hello. So this is my first fanfic and it's in English (which is not my native language) so please be merciful. Anyway, any constructive critic you have you can leave it in the comment box.  
> As two of the characters are Spanish speakers I'll leave the translations right next to their respective dialogues, and some of them might include notes explaining customs or idioms .  
> Hope you like it!

The paladins of Voltron, mighty defenders of the universe, symbols of the resistance...

_Just kids_.

Shiro found himself in a state of dissociation (as if that was something new), barely aware of the stormy sea his mind was, making almost every feeling known to the human being flower and prickle at his skin. But he couldn't avoid it. At least not while looking at Keith, unconscious and fighting for his life inside one of the cold healing pods.

_They are just kids_ his mind repeated, and a low voice laughed, making his head and shoulders sink slightly as he looked around, only finding Coran and Lance. He knew Allura was sitting right behind him too, waiting patiently for Coran's answer about Keith's state, but the man couldn't avoid feeling like she was doing it more out of duty than actual concern or interest. Not like he could call her out on that; it was only just a thought, and lately he didn't have any good thoughts.

_The one you had last night was a very good thought_ the low voice chuckled, and Shiro grinded his teeth together.

He never had good thoughts lately, especially in the early morning, when he was alone with himself in a dark, cold and empty bedroom, with the weight of Keith's life hanging from a string on his shoulders. It was almost as bad as when Lance had barely made it out alive of the internal damage he had suffered from the explosion caused by Sendak's fake Rover.

_I thought you'd like my little gift. An excuse for you to drop the act of the rightful leader and go back to the pit where you belong_.

"Shiro? Are you okay, dude?" Lance asked, his hands inches away from Shiro's shoulder, almost as if he was afraid of touching him. Shiro didn't blame him; he looked like a spring ready to snap, all muscles tense and eyes filled with anger and, if you looked really carefully, fear, but then Lance noticed him coming back to the world of the living and put his hand on his shoulder, a characteristic comforting grip that he had seen him give Hunk many times after a really hard battle.

"I'm just..." he started, words quickly dying on his mouth. How could he finish that without worrying them? He was crumbling down, hesitating, desiring to back away, to just _leave_. He didn't want to be anywhere anymore. _I've had hallucinations and heard Sendak's voice in my head ever since the crystal incident, I haven't slept in five days, my stomach is killing me but there're hours left before meal time and my practicaly-baby-brother is half dead because of me_. "I'm really nervous. And tired. That's all," he said instead, 

"Keith will be okay, Shiro. Why don't you go sleep for a while? I won't leave him, I promise," Lance said, smiling at him warmly. How could this guy be an incredible egocentric doofus and this caring at the same time?

"I'll..." He wanted to stay, but he could feel their gazes pinning him down. If he didn't "rest" they would worry. "I'll go nap for a while. Wake me up it there are any changes." And with that said, he turned around and left the room, the three people in there that were awake following him with worried eyes anyways, but the two Alteans ended up shrugging it off to Shiro's usual shady-ish behaviour, and Lance had his own troubled mind to distract himself with. Actually, they all had.

Their state was pitiful, after all, so who wouldn't worry?

The Castle had been so damaged after the battle against Zarkon's main ship that it had taken a whole week for Allura and Coran to semi-locate the green lion, only managing because Pidge had built a satellite out of space garbage to amplify her signal. Then, with her help, they put half of the systems up; found Hunk and Lance. And, two days after that, they found Shiro trying to protect himself and dying Keith from the beasts of the planet they had landed in. Keith had an awful cut going from his back to his stomach, as if one of the beasts had wanted to open him up with its claws, and Shiro was still clutching to the wound Haggar had opened at his side.

The lions needed maintenance, the Castle needed maintenance, and they were a paladin down.

Who wouldn't worry?

_They didn't worry much when it happened to you_ Lance's mind spat out without his consent, but he just kept staring at an uncertain point in the wall, trying to not think. _Busy much with their clock party. No one was waiting for you when you woke up_.

_Shut it_ he mentally snarled to himself. It was like that episode from Naruto, where he found his evil self in a waterfall. Only that Naruto had met him for fifteen minutes and defeated him; Lance had had his for his whole life and wasn't near punching him.

_But why would they? You're just here because there's no other option. But Keith? No, man. He's special. Should know it, after everyone left clear how you're not worth even the dust from his shoes_. Lance rubbed his face, palms sweaty. _I mean, look at you. You've been at this for a little while and you're ready to fling yourself into space. It's incredible how little you can bear without your mum or your little friend protecting you and making sure you don't fuck up_.

"You should go get some rest too, Lance. You look pale," Coran said, tapping things into a pad as he looked at the information on Keith's pod's screen. Judging by the little Altean Lance had managed to learn, nothing could be good. The blood pressure was in red. Red couldn't mean anything good.

Besides, he had promised Shiro he'd stay, let him know if there were any changes.

"I can't." Allura looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"I insist. I believe Hunk is already awake. He slept all night and you didn't. I'll call him and tell him to stay. You go rest," he said, left hand stretching towards the wall, opening up the communication system of the Castle. " _Go_."

# . . .

Humans were weird. Allura decided that when she noticed that the new paladins fought with actual hope of defeating the empire, not just causing some damage and perishing while trying. Because, being realistic, that was their future. And yes, she might had been a little bit egoistic saving all the data and calculations about their probabilities to herself and Coran to keep their spirits high, because that meant that she was taking them by the hand to a future they thought bright, despite it being the darkest thing in the universe.

It was the same hope that had gotten her out of Zarkon's base, though. So, despite the facts being _so_ against them, maybe she had a little spark of childish hope and naiveness shining somewhere deep inside her. It grew a little bigger whenever she saw the paladins succeed at a mission, or get better at something (like when she noticed Shiro had gotten a few hours of sleep, or Hunk had improved his knowledge and handling of the tech in the Castle and Lions, or Lance upped his way up the levels of training, slowly but persistently), but then it all went down again. For every step they took forward, they took three steps backwards. Or they were pushed backwards, to be more precise. Whenever Shiro could get a few hours of sleep in him, for example, they would have a bad battle that would leave him broken again, and it would crush Lance's spirit and his performance would lower, and Hunk's fear would return.

Pidge's only real focus was finding her family, so her improvement wasn't good in anything more than her comprehension of Altean technology and language (second hand learning), and Keith seemed to be doing all of this because... It was the only thing he had. There was no real eagerness to fight, just there were no other options.

"I'm serious, Coran. If we want to stay in the game we need to find something. Motivate them! Fill the Castle's vital crew positions! We will go down earlier than expected if we keep going like this," she said, tapping her feet quickly against the floor. She could feel her _ealakie_ starting to itch because of her low burning annoyance.

"I know, princess. But it is harder than we want it to be. We don't really know who we can trust and who we can't. Half of our allies have already turned their backs on us," he said. "I might have an idea, but I don't think it will be that useful," he muttered, finally closing Keith's screen and deactivating his pad, so he could sit down on the steps. "He's stable. Not improving, but stable."

"We should pray to Boquem and Tarraz for his life," Allura sighed, and Coran bit his lip.

"Or Siquem and Raquia for them to carry him to the upper mountains," he replied, shaking his head. "Keith possesses quite a quick healing gene, I don't know where he got it from, but he has it. If he isn't getting any better now, I don't think he'll ever make it out of that pod."

"You're saying that we should already start looking for a new red paladin?" Allura asked, head snapping up. Oh, no. That only made things worse in so many ways. The effect it would have on the team, the time it would take for them to find a new red paladin (and maybe a whole new pack of paladins, if the old ones refused to bond with the new one)...

"Humans are so delicate," Coran sighed, and Allura dropped her head on her hands.

" _Too_ delicate," she emphasized.

# . . .

He hated his feet for always taking him there. It was the last place where he would want to be.

The cell bay was always empty, a heavy reminder of who had been held there months ago when all of this had just started, and of how that person now seemed to reside on his own head, only tormenting him.

_One of this days I will finally manage to push you over the edge and there will be nothing else for you to do than fall_ Sendak laughed, and Shiro fell to his knees. At least he knew that he would be alone here, unless Hunk was on one of his unscheduled strolls through the Castle.

"It's cold," he groaned, curling up on himself against a wall, lip starting to tremble.

_That's your body becoming weaker. You're even worse than when you lived at the cells of the arena_. Sendak sighed pleased. I remember how you would babble nonsense and grab onto anything as we dragged you anywhere, trying to avoid the unavoidable.

"F-fuck you." Yep. He was definitely seeing double now. Curse him and his lack of sleep.

_For someone who is locked up in such a chaotic head, I'm having lots of fun, you know? I've always enjoyed watching my prisoners spiralling down into madness and desperately trying to cling to something_.

Shiro's head lolled to a side and he bumped it against the wall, but he was already passing out, so it couldn't have mattered less.

# . . .

Hunk was a pretty nervous guy. But who could blame him? Someone had to be the one to worry and actually get scared like a normal human person in a family of two reckless and fearless people, just jumping from event to event, without stopping to think and look around, actually realise the situation they are in. 

He was proud to say that, lately, his nervousness hadn't decreased and less disappeared, but it wasn't stopping him from doing things anymore. He was really proud, although he had kind of been pushed into acting without taking much time to think through the last three months. Overall ever since Shiro's PTSD had finally taken over. Before, it would only visit from time to time, as if evaluating if buying that house would be a good investment. But since the poisoned crystal, not only it had bought the house, it had moved in and remodelled.

Hunk was sure that that was the motive for him finding Shiro curled up in hallways, screaming in what he thought was Portuguese, seeming caught in memories of worse times.

The first times it had happened, the boy had walked away because of his fear, and he had regretted it when he noticed how Shiro would appear with scratch marks on his face after those attacks. He had done those to himself in the midst of a flashback or hallucination (but Hunk didn't know they were flashbacks or hallucinations at that time). It wasn't until Shiro confused him with a Galran guard and attacked him, only to have Hunk pinning him down against the floor and just holding him there until he came back to reality (after what felt like hours), that Hunk realised what the man's actual problem was.

He didn't feel proud about having asked Pidge to put a virus on Shiro's arm, to get reading's through it and track him down whenever an attack was happening, without his consent, but he knew that the man would do the classic "I'm fine" and refuse, so...

That's the story of how Shiro thought that Hunk habituated to stroll around the Castle and casually find him, every time he was suffering in a corner.

"What's that beeping sound?" Allura asked, eyes nailed on Hunk, as the boy started to fetch through his pockets to find the small device he had made for himself. It said "Shiro, cell bay".

"Uhm... I... Can I go? It'll be just a few minutes," he asked, already walking towards the door. The princess frowned and opened her mouth to speak, but the words died quickly on her mouth when Coran shook his head and indicated Hunk to go with a twist of his wrist, allowing him to burst out of the room.

"Why doesn't he run that quickly during training?" Coran sighed.

The answer was because, during training, he had nothing to lose. Now, he could lose Shiro. He had been so close to losing him a few times now that he wasn't risking another one. He was not letting the incident in the propeller room happening again. 

He remembered barely being able to catch Shiro by the vest after he jumped and started running faster.

Shiro woke up after thirty minutes, hearing prisoners screaming in pain, begging for mercy in unknown languages and screeching in an inhuman way when it wasn't granted. He could also hear the guards calmly walking outside, speaking in a language that he thought had been invented to talk exclusively about death and torture.

His heartbeat started picking up as he crawled towards the wall that was the farest from the cell door, sticking himself to it, as if he could somehow melt into it and avoid the guards taking him anywhere. To the arena, the druid's laboratory or Sendak's "interrogation" room. Because they were going to take him somewhere, they always did. He could never be left alone for too much.

The door opened and a soldier walked, heading towards him at a really fast pace.

"Please, don't," he muttered, clutching his arms against his chest, making himself as small as possible. The guard put a hand on his shoulder and her swung his left hand to try hit his face, but he missed. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" he screamed, trying to get away.

"Shiro, calm down, please," the guard said with firm but soft voice. He frowned, feeling how he was pinned against the wall by the shoulders, instead of getting dragged by the ankle. "You are safe." 

"What?" he asked, eyes trying to find something in the guard's face. At least where his face should be. The memory was becoming weaker.

"You're at the Castle of Lions. There are no Galra in here. It's just me, Hunk," he said.

Shiro calmed down, swallowing hard around the knot on his throat, as he looked around and noticed that yes, what he was seeing wasn't real. It was fuzzy and non detailed, like a memory that was slowly being forgotten.

It still took a few minutes for it to go away and finally be able to see that yes, he was at the Castle, with Hunk still gently pinning him against the wall as he sang a song with low voice.

# . . .

It wasn't until two days later that Keith woke up at midnight, when only Lance and Shiro were awake, both because they couldn't sleep.

If you asked him, Lance wouldn't be able to answer why he always went to the healing bay and pace around Keith's pod, just thinking, because he usually couldn't stand being around the guy. He had this defensive attitude towards him that didn't help one bit Lance's bad driven hate towards his persona; putting them in a room was like mixing the chemicals for a bomb. And, even if Keith wasn't there, he still made him feel bad. Or..., well, was indirectly guilty of his suffering.

But there he was, looking at the boy's face through the glass, as thoughts about everything that had been happening gushed in his mind. He wasn't really there mentally, so when the pod opened and Keith stepped out of it with trembling legs and fell on top of him, Lance was barely able to open his eyes in surprise.

They both crushed into the floor, Keith's weight on top of him squeezing the air out of his lungs as he clutched at the white fabric of the healing suit. Keith rose his head for almost a full second to try to look around, but it fell against Lance's neck. Despite having slept for a week and a half, he felt extremely exhausted. He groaned, his body gladly soaking in the warmth from underneath him, curling closer to get more, desperately.

"Dude," a voice said, and Keith slowly looked up to find Lance looking at him with surprise. "You're awake," he then said, a smile cracking open as his arms flew up to hug Keith tightly, making it hard to breathe and to _think_. "God, we thought you were going to die. Shiro has been horrible," he muttered, as he started to get up, pushing the red paladin with him too.

" _Off_ ," Keith mumbled, pushing himself away from Lance, not missing how his eyes quickly filled with annoyance and a really soft hate.

"Whatever," he murmured, getting up and dusting off his clothes, looking down at Keith. "I'm going to wake everyone up. Do you want to stay or come?" he asked, not looking actually interested in the answer.

"I'll stay," the boy answered, eyes low as he tried to sit upright on the floor. Lance was off almost immediately, murmuring a bitter "Whatever", and Keith couldn't help but hate himself a little bit more. Because, seriously! Lance had looked so genuinely excited about him being okay, and his pining-grudge-holding-ass had shrugged him off as if he was something disgusting. Yeah, Lance had talked a lot of shit about him in the past, but it was different now.

It was just so hard to let de barriers down.

He was hunched all over himself and shivering thanks to the Castle's natural low temperature by the time people started arriving.

Not surprisingly, the first one was Shiro. He came running through the door, sprinting when he spotted Keith out of the pod and raising his head at the sound of someone getting closer.

The boy's heart clenched awfully and a pit opened in his stomach when Shiro got so close, fight or flight instincts doing their usual appearance, but he tried to make them go away and just let the man have this moment. And he had to be happy, because Keith was everything but a light weight, and Shiro was holding him up in a crushing hug as if he weighted the same as a couple of grapes.

"I thought you were going to die on me," Shiro murmured, voice almost emotionless, if it weren't for the shock, and Keith forced himself to relax into the hug, soak in Shiro's little warmth and hummed in content.

"I'm okay," he answered, words slightly slurred as if he was still a little bit asleep.

"I'm so glad you're fine," Pidge sighed, and then Hunk came in, grabbing both him and Shiro into a bear hug that left him breathless. Keith watched as the others slowly arrived, still dressed in their pyjamas and looking half asleep, just like him.

"You must be starving," Allura said with a warm smile when she decided that it had been enough of hugging time as she put a hand on his back. "Why don't we all go to the dining room so that we can discuss our next move while Keith eats something?" she asked, and Keith was going to agree to the idea, but he felt Shiro tense around him and gulped.

"He just woke up from a coma that lasted more than a week and you already want to discuss our next move?" Shiro asked, slowly letting go of the teen to look at Allura, whose eyebrows rose in surprise.

"Yes. Time is something crucial, Shiro. If Keith is out of the healing pod then he is completely fine, he doesn't need much more rest," she answered with calm voice. Shiro sighed and licked his lips.

"I don't mean that. I mean that after our last move, we all almost died. Keith only recovered a few minutes ago," he explained, talking slowly but with no calm. Hunk threw a worried look at Lance, that was watching the exchange with a frown. Then Pidge, and he managed to catch her eyes. She just shrugged at his inquiring eyes. "I think we should step back, train instead of diving into battle being totally unprepared for something this big," he finished, taking a step back from Allura; it was maybe something unconscious, or to make a statement.

"What?" the princess asked, eyes wide open. The words seemed to have the same impact as a direct blow to the face.

"I'm sorry, Allura. I understand that we are responsible of the whole universe's future, believe me, I think about it every night while trying to sleep. But they are just kids, and I'm inexperienced. We've only been doing this for three months and that's clearly not enough for us to face such a big threat," he explained himself. Lance frowned at the "they're just kids", feeling how the wound he had been trying to heal ever since the realisation that he was now an actual soldier in an actual war, very far from home, had sank on him.

"I'm not saying that we are going to attack Zarkon's base again! I'm just saying that we have to carry on with our plan!" she striked back, recovering the step that Shiro had taken.

"What plan, Allura? Tell me which one!" he snapped, smiling a little bit disturbingly. "We don't have a plan! We don't have a plan, nor the force to win _any_ of this," he said, words slowly falling to whispers, as he rubbed his face. Sendak was right, he was walking them to the edge.

"You are scared, and I completely understand, Shiro. But, still, you can't let fear blind you. If we don't do this it will be the end of everything," Allura said, putting a hand on his shoulder, but he shook it off, stepping back again.

"Maybe the problem is that you are not afraid. And I totally get why you aren't; you have nothing to lose," he said, and Keith put a firm hand on Shiro's shoulder, his eyes telling the man that had been a low punch and a complete douche move, but he couldn't stop. "For what my family concerns I have been dead for over a year. What about Lance's family? Or Hunk's? Pidge's mother has already lost a husband and a son because of me! I'm not taking her daughter away from her too," he said.

"Shiro, please stop," Pidge said, fists clenching at her sides.

"Pidge is right. You are not thinking this through," Keith said, tightening the grip on Shiro's shoulder.

"We are powerless. Five robots piloted by clumsy humans against a whole empire of killing machines. You want to keep fighting this war? Alright, but not with me. I'm not taking them to the gallows." Allura's eyes opened even wider and her mouth fell slightly open, her arms going limp.

_Oh no. Here comes the wet anger_ she thought, biting her lower lip and pointing her sight to the brightest light she could find to make the tears welling in her eyes go away.

"I'm going back to Earth, and I'm taking them with me," Shiro said as he turned around and started walking out of the room, stopping when he said, "Good luck finding a new paladin."

Silence fell and Keith looked around, not liking what he saw. Not even one bit. Pidge still had her fists clenched at her sides, crying silently without rising her face. Hunk was stone-faced as if he was slowly processing what just had happened. And Lance... Lance looked ruined. He was already walking out of the room, slowly starting to trot because he clearly wanted to _get out, get away_ , covering his mouth with one hand as tears rolled down his face and over it.

"Is..." Allura started, making Keith turn towards her again. "Is he really going to leave?"

Keith opened his mouth, but then closed it. He didn't have anything to say. Nothing good, at least. He had only seen Shiro this sure about something when he broke up with Lila because she didn't want him to go to Kerberos.

"I'll talk to him," Pidge said, still looking down, as she cleaned the tears away with the sleeve of her jacket. "I'll make him snap out of it," and with that she was gone too. 

Coran put a hand on Keith's shoulder.

"You should go to your room. Shower and get dressed. I'll prepare breakfast," he said, giving him a reassuring smile, and when Keith hesitated about leaving he winked at him. "Don't worry, he probably just had a rough day. He won't leave."

"What if it's not a rough day? What if he actually wants to leave because he thinks we'll die and it'll be his fault?" he asked, voice so low that he surprised himself, coughing the knot that he hadn't noticed forming in his throat away.

"I will figure something out," Coran stated.

#  . . .

Shiro's room was naked. It always made Pidge feel awkward when she went in for any reason. Your room always showed who you were, even in the smallest things. Like Hunk's tiny Balmeran crystal hanging on top of his bunk, or Lance's recently acquired face masks over his desk and the robe hanging on a wall, or her mess of a room, covered in tech parts and notes. Even Keith had a tiny collection of little rocks he picked up from the places they landed in. But Shiro's didn't have anything. The only thing you could get out from it was that Shiro was neat, judging by the way the bed sheets of his bed didn't have even one wrinkle.

Pidge would have thought he didn't hear her come in when he didn't move a muscle, but she knew that Shiro would hear even a pin drop in the hallway, by the way his eyes would move at the softest sound. He just stayed there, head resting on his arms, sitting in his desk chair.

"You didn't mean what you said to Allura," Pidge stated with monotone voice as she sat down on Shiro's bunk. He slowly turned to look at her, and he looked tired, old. Almost twice his age.

"I did, Pidge. You are fourteen, you don't have to be a soldier in a war we didn't have anything to do," he said, slowly sitting straight.

"We have to do with it, Shiro. Even if we didn't cause it. If we don't fight, Earth goes down like the rest of the planets. Our people are enslaved if we are lucky, killed if we are not."

"Your mother..."

"My mother knew what I was getting myself into. She let me go and sneak into a government facility even after they threatened to lock me up or worse. She let me go and involve myself in a federal concealment issue, through highly illegal methods," she said. "And she didn't lost my father and brother. Not yet."

"Pidge..."

"They are out there, Shiro. I know it. They are alive, and I won't go back home until I find them and make sure they will be safe from the Galra for the rest of their lives. If you go back to Earth, it won't be with me on the ship. That I know for sure," she finished, making Shiro's jaw clench.

"We are not powerful enough. If we keep fighting we will all die. Allura might not think it through because she doesn't have a family to go back to, but I do. All of us do," he said, leaning towards Pidge. She didn't move a muscle.

"You are not giving Voltron the credit it deserves," she said, voice monotone again.

"Yeah, right. The giant alien super-robot formed by smaller lion-robots," he snorted.

_Watch out, Shirogane_ Black said in his head with a warning tone. He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah. Green didn't like that either," Pidge laughed, before leaning in too. "This is why we need to stay and keep fighting, Shiro," she said, putting her index finger on her temple. "We were able to connect with those smaller lion-alien-robots. We are special, probably born to do this. If we don't, then who will?" she asked.

"Anyone else that was born to do this," Shiro groaned leaning away. Pidge was winning him in his own game.

"Do you really think you would be able without her? Black is a part of you, Shiro, just like Green became a part of me from the moment I piloted her for the first time. And without our bond? Every time we form Voltron it gets stronger. I can _feel_ through it."

"Going back home doesn't mean we can't be together anymore," he replied, voice low.

"But we wouldn't be together like this. Not the ten of us." Shiro looked up, and Pidge finally let her emotions slip into her face when she saw how broken he looked. How fucked up, how tempted to throw everything down the drain, to give it up.

"Listen, Pidge," he started, swallowing the knot on his throat, trying to get his voice away from the breaking point. "I can't lose any of you. Your blood would be in my hands."

"It will be in your hands if we die and you aren't there to protect us too," she deadpanned, internally cringing because... _Damn_ , that was an ugly thing to say for someone already suffering from a severe case of survivor's guilt.

"Please don't do this," Shiro fake-laughed, leaning back against his chair.

"I'm just saying the truth." Pidge got up and walked away without looking back, trying to not show hesitation through seeing how deep her words had cut.

# . . .

Lance, Shiro, Hunk and Pidge were missing in action, and Keith really missed their perpetual bickering in that moment. It could drift away all the thoughts racing through his mind with its slight annoyance and big fun. But no, he was eating in silence with princess Allura, because Coran said he had to search for something that might help their actual situation.

"If Shiro actually left..." Allura started, breaking the awkward silence that had been there ever since Coran had left. Neither of them lifted their eyes from their food. "Would you go with him?" she finished, biting her lip.

Keith took in a deep breath and let his spoon aside, joining his hands on his lap as he thought.

"Shiro is like a big brother to me. He is literally the only family I have," he started murmuring, and Allura's head seemed to hang lower. "But... Back on Earth I have nothing, and Shiro would probably go back to his family in Brazil, so I wouldn't be with him either if I stayed or left," he answered, swallowing hard and trying not to think about it but doing it anyways.

Why would he go back? The only thing waiting for him on Earth was a crappy shack and a bank account with inherited money from people that he barely remembered. He would go from having an actual group of lookalike friends to random hookups at the closest bar. He would go from having an actual mission in life, a motive to _stay_ , to be just an empty paper bag going with the flow. Nowhere and no one to go to, nothing to do. He wouldn't go back if Shiro did, no matter how much it would hurt not being with him. If he had survived his "death" he could survive being apart from him.

"It's nice knowing that at least someone will be staying," Allura sighed with a soft smile, and Keith looked at her, frowning.

"Someone? Who else do you think will live?" he asked, completely confused. The princess looked at him with pitiful eyes. 

"Everyone?" she said, looking as if she was about to cry. "Hunk hates being a paladin. I can sense it. He's just too scared of everything. If Voltron is no longer making her stay, Pidge will start looking for her family on her own, not like we have helped her much with that." She finished the sentence with a breathy laugh, her expression showing regret as she roughly rubbed her hands together.

"What about Lance?" Keith asked, hating how his voice lowered and the urge to inch closer. Allura looked at him with a confused frown before answering.

"Lance... He is miserable without his family. Coran told me about it, he misses them a lot. And I know he is really compromised with the cause and that he doesn't mind putting his life at stake for the right thing, but I'm worried that his family might end up making him decide on returning," she explained, blinking her surprise away when Keith's expression went blank.

"I didn't know about that," he whispered.

"Well, you two don't talk much. I know your relationship has improved a lot ever since you arrived. After three months you managed to stop fighting over idiocies. But you still haven't warmed up to the other, and Lance wouldn't talk about this with someone who he..."

"Didn't like?"

"Didn't really knew," Allura corrected him, but the way her lips pressed into a thin line told him how he had struck in the right place. And it hurt, just a little bit. Maybe it was more the idea of Lance leaving that "being told" he didn't like him, because the second one was kind of obvious.

"It's okay. Don't worry."

# . . .

Lance loved Hunk's bedroom. It was the one that felt most like a home, with its tiny alien plants resting on the desk or floor, the Balmeran crystal working as a small star, the only light in the darkness of the room. It also smelt like Hunk; of fruits and sun, maybe a little earthy now that he thought about it.

Being there helped Lance relax, even with Hunk's incredibly loud snoring. And boy, he needed to relax and think about everything for a while now.

In Lance's family, they were all pretty similar. Even with the way they coped with stuff.

There was never a big impact, it was more like... Like a knife slowly moving up your spine, cutting a little bit deeper every millimetre it made. You only felt it when it was already deep, the sting of the open wound not being strong enough to make you look around and realise that you are spiralling down.

He hadn't really realised that he was fighting in an actual war until the night after he woke up from the healing pod. He had almost died (the explosion of the crystal had caused too much internal damage, and his outlook was anything but good). That night he had been laying in bed, trying to fall asleep when he realised that he had almost died. A few weeks ago he was about to go home for summer holidays. Ariela was going to visit and they would go swimming at the beach, and to the Santa Mónica pier to ride the roller coasters. They might even fly to Cuba to visit the rest of his family.

Now, he didn't even know if he would see them or hear their voice ever again.

But an opportunity had presented. If Shiro actually returned, they would have to find a new black paladin, so finding a new blue one wouldn't hurt them much, right? He could go back, let them know that he was okay.

He could _return_ home; the problem was if he could ever _leave_. Leave the Castle, Blue and the team. Leave his best friend alone, fighting a war. Even if his hero decided to abandon, did that mean that he could do it too?

# . . .

"What could possibly help, Coran?" Shiro asked in a resigned sigh as they walked into the control deck. The altean had called them and told them he would expect them there, that he had something that could help.

"You said that we were powerless, that we didn't stand a chance against the empire," the man said, as he opened a panel in the door wall, and a new door appeared. "I think this can change your mind," he finished with a smile, indicating them to walk with him. Pidge frowned as she entered the poorly illuminated hallway. How many things about the Castle were there that she didn't know?

The walk was long, and surprisingly, no one asked any questions. That was until they reached the hangar Coran was leading them to.

"Jesus Christ," Lance murmured, as he took a few steps forward and put a hand on the black energy field that shielded a black robot from them. Its yellow eyes seemed to bore daggers on their foreheads, and Coran squinted at it as if he knew about some darker intentions. 

"The black panther," Allura said in an amazed whisper. They all turned to look at her and came across such a mix of feelings they couldn't end up recognising many. There was some strange fondness and spite at the same time. 

"You knew about this?" Shiro asked, and she shook her head.

"I knew it used to exist, but I thought it had been destroyed after... After its paladin's death," she answered, cutting herself halfway through and lowering her gaze as if the memory was personally painful.

"This is part of Voltron? What does it form? The..." Lance started with a sly smirk, but Shiro elbowed him with an unamused look and he shut up, pouting.

"This is not part of Voltron," Coran started. "It was built after the lions. Voltron may be aggressive and destructive, but just like you, it doesn't put winning over everything, over lives or damage caused to the places where you fight. The panther does," he explained. "It was built when Voltron started losing because it didn't match the Galra in their ruthlessness."

"Why didn't you tell us about it before?" Pidge demanded. Allura made a weird sound, something that sounded between awkward and pained.

"The panther has a really volatile personality. On the wrong hands, it could be something counterproductive. It's really hard to find someone that the panther will allow them to pilot, and even harder to find someone enough strong minded to overcome the panther's bloodlust and natural aggressiveness," she explained, twisting her dress with her fingers and throwing wary looks at Shiro. "If we can't find someone to pilot it... I'm afraid it'll just stay here, Coran."

"But we aren't limited to Alteans now Allura. There must be someone in our ally planets that is capable," Coran insisted. When the princess didn't say anything, he turned towards Shiro. "Would you wait for a while? Before leaving? If we can't find the sixth paladin then you can go back home," he insisted, and Shiro looked away, biting his cheek and awkwardly scraping his nape.

"I won't leave, even if you don't find the sixth paladin," he started, taking in a deep breath and avoiding the gleeful looks that the two Alteans were giving him. "I won't leave any of them behind," he said, pointing at the other paladins, "And if that means I have to stay and die protecting them... I'll do it."

"Great!" Allura exclaimed, clapping her hands together happily. "I do hope you don't die, but you staying here is..."

"But, under the condition that we stay out of business until we find the new paladin," Shiro interrupted her. Allura frowned and opened her mouth to reply, but he kept going. "It will give us time to really stop and think what we are doing, start sketching a strategy and recover from all the damage we've suffered."

"It's a great idea," Coran said, already walking out of the hangar. "I'll start letting our allies know that we'll be dropping by to run some tests."

# . . .

"Hey, Coran, loosen up," Lance smiled at him, as he clapped his shoulder friendly, but Coran just groaned, without taking his eyes away from the row of Balmerans that were lazily trying to connect with a panther. It was a waste of time. The most peaceful race trying to pilot the panther, a vicious monster as he remembered, but it was all they had. Their list of allies had ran out quickly.

"We're never going to get back on business like this," Coran said, sighing and closing his eyes tiredly. "I'm thankful that Shiro decided on not leaving but still... Things are not looking good for a new black paladin." He looked at Lance. "At least now we don't have to look for a new blue paladin too," he added, making Lance go read in the ears and lower his head in shame.

"I'm sorry, but is missing your family really a crime?" he asked. Then he sighed. "I wouldn't leave you, not like this, but I'd be lying if I said I've never thought about grabbing a pod and going home. Not like I'm _that_ useful, compared to the others." Coran slid a regretful arm across his shoulders.

"I'm not saying it is. I'm sorry. I just can't even think of letting go of my favourite paladin, no matter how awesome his family is," he smiled to Lance, whose face lit up so much it was ridiculous. Both because he heard that he was someone's favourite and because he heard that his family was awesome, a thing that was totally true.

"You should meet them when all of this is over. You would really like them, especially my younger sister. She is really intelligent and would throw herself over you for you to tell her about Altean culture... And then there's this really old friend that's like another sibling to us... Would totally kill someone to learn Altean, or any language really," he smiled, a little bit nostalgically.

"Sounds like an amazing fella."

"You betcha. Ari's great; would totally be better than me in this whole paladin thing, after years of going to kickboxing and learning to shoot with my dad..." Lance started, face lowered, but then he went stiff, eyes opening widely as he turned towards Coran. " _Ari_ " he whispered, grabbing Coran by the arms. "We need to go back to back to Earth, Coran. I know who might be able to pilot the panther," he said with a giant smile.

# . . .

Unknown: Ariela de la Torre?

Ariela: Who is this?

Unknown: I have information about your brother's disappearance.

Ariela: If this is some kind of joke I will find you and end you.

Unknown: Never been more serious. If you want more information you'll let me in tomorrow. I'll be there by midday.

Ariela: How do you know where I live?

# . . .

Hunk frowned at Lance when the guy just flipped the disposable phone off and threw it on top of a tray filled with empty hamburger boxes and weird fries holders thingies.

"Was the shadiness necessary? The police will be waiting for us when we arrive there tomorrow!" he exclaimed, but Lance shrugged him off with a gesture of his hand as he curled himself up in his new jacket.

"What did she say?" Shiro asked, words barely understandable, as he spoke with a mouthful of hamburger. It was his third one, and Keith was following suit, Pidge looking at both of them with disgust; they ate like hyenas.

"Agh, don't worry guys. Everything will go according to the plan," Lance said, smiling at them. He hadn't stopped smiling ever since they had arrived Earth the morning before. "How's your hamburger, Allura?" he asked the woman.

"She still hasn't tried it," Pidge murmured, taking the hamburger Allura had hidden under the table and placing it on top of the trays, gaining an angry look from the princess. "She's scared it will taste awful."

"I'm not," the princess pouted, crossing her arms on top of her chest.

"Then _eat_ it," Pidge demanded. Allura took in a deep breath and, without breaking eye contact, she unwrapped the hamburger and took a bite of it, staining her face with the condiments that the hamburger had. She slowly munched, and her eyes slowly started to light up and open in surprise.

"Is it good?" Shiro asked with a funny smile. Allura moaned loudly in answer, as she swallowed and took another bite.

"That's not how I pictured I'd hear her moan for the first time," Lance said, receiving a smack from Hunk midsentece and finishing it with little breath, making Pidge snort. They all sighed in unison.

"I can't believe I'm back," Shiro murmured, looking around him with endearing eyes, although he just saw the front of a McDonald's and an empty street. "This was a good idea, Lance," he added, looking back at the boy.

"Of course it was! I only have good ideas," he replied, but the cocky attitude didn't quite reach him, as he was too busy admiring the fact that they were back on Earth. For really little, yes, but they were.

The original plan had been figure out where his sibling was, and make her get on the ship as quickly as possible to get out from that solar system until they were over with the war. But then Lance had proposed staying for a bit; they weren't fighting anyways, and they all could use a break. Besides, Coran needed to go some places to repair the ship, but Allura needed to rest too, so they settled for using the backup energy she had stored on the ship for the man to use wormholes to travel while they waited everything out on Earth.

Before actually going, Pidge had stocked all of them with fake IDs and multiple credit cards, saying that she needed new pieces of equipment and clothes, and that they could break the law a little bit if they were going to save the universe. Shiro and Hunk had been against it at the beginning, but it was true that the little accurate clothes they had managed to create with the Castle's machinery were already starting to deteriorate.

They had booked three rooms on a motel in Cheviot Hills and gone shopping with their fake credit cards. Pidge and Hunk had practically ran away to all the tech houses they found, saying that they would meet them later at the motel, so the rest just went on and shopped for clothes (and face products, in Lance's case).

Allura had been wide-eyed and marvelled by everything, listening intently to Lance's explanations and pulling him by the arm toward anything she found interesting. She had also made herself a stash of human clothes, just because she could and because she found them extremely cute and weird.

_"They're quite revealing,_ " she had said, while holding a burdeos velvet dress against her figure, _"But I guess it's normal since you don't have any_ ealakies _to hide."_

"I was wondering," Allura started, catching everyone's attention again. She was playing with the braids Lance had made on her hair while they waited for the guys to get their food. "Why do you think this sibling of yours will be able to pilot the panther?"

All eyes turned to Lance and he lowered his gaze. Okay, this was something he wasn't used to.

"Well..." he started, gulping as he scratched his neck awkwardly. "Ariela has had a rough time, and she has changed a lot ever since my family met her. She's really strong and has dealt with many horrible people. And by horrible I mean extra horrible," he answered.

"I just hope you're right. I don't know if anyone has more ideas besides this one," the princess sighed.

"Yeah," Lance said, licking his lips anxiously. "I hope I'm right too."

# . . .

The next morning they loaded the pod with everything they had bought (which was something really hard, since they had bought _many_ things), and set off with their rented cars towards Lance's house.

The McClains were quite a numerous family, and with them lived Lance's father's assistant and, from time to time, Ariela. So, it was only normal they had a four-story house. The outside painting was French blue, with white decorations. The garden was filled with colourful flowers and decorative stones here and there.

"I see no movement," Shiro mumbled, as they walked through the stone path towards the main door. "Is your family at home?"

"They should all be. Even my older siblings," Lance answered with a deep frown, as he closed his hand around the knob and turned it, the door opening. Ariela had left it unlocked. "I'll go in first, in case someone gets scared," he said, and then walked inside the house.

It was all just like he remembered. The hall walls, painted with a bright orange, were covered in family pictures, just like the living room ones. The stairs were almost in front of him, a little bit to his left. The door to his father's study room was closed, probably under lock, and from the kitchen doorframe hung the curtain-like-thing Flynn and Annelise had made years ago with small origami elephants and beads.

"Wow. It's a really nice house," Hunk murmured.

"This is your family?" Allura asked excitedly, as she took one of the pictures from the wall and looked at it. It was from his parent's wedding. "Oh, look at you! You were so small, Lance!" she cooed, and everyone went to peep at the picture over her shoulder.

"Where are they?" Lance asked to himself, as he sneaked a peek inside the kitchen and found it empty too, just like the living room. "I'm going to check upstairs," he said, before practically rocketing up and leaving the rest of the team alone.

"I'll go with him," Shiro announced, before chasing after the teen.

"How do they paint this small portraits so well?" Allura asked.

"They are photographs, not paintings," Hunk laughed.

"No. Photographs are only digital," she frowned.

"Not on Earth," Pidge sing-sang, as she followed Keith towards the living room.

It was huge, just like the rest of the house, filled with sofas, chairs and coffee tables. One of the orange walls wasn't plain, having a beautiful scenery of a beach during a sunset painted on it. There were plants on the corners and flowers on top of the tables, even more pictures hanging from the walls and resting on top of a white commode. They were graduation pictures.

"Jesus christ, Lance has like a bazillion brothers," Hunk breathed out.

"They're just eight, Hunk," Pidge laughed, as he picked up one of the pictures. A pair of twins had "graduated" from daycare.

"They're clones!" Allura exclaimed.

The first floor was clear, and it was worrying Lance. In a family of twelve people, times where there was no one at home were incredibly rare. But, now that the thought about it, maybe Ariela had told the rest about the text and they had decided to leave the house as a precaution.

Or, Ariela was the only one that had stayed and was waiting for them on her bedroom with a gun, already aiming even though she could only see the leg of a person.

Shiro saw her, quickly tugged Lance out of view and put himself in front of him as a shield, making the girl immediately stand up which... wasn't really intimidating. Not when she was barely five feet and coins, wearing a pastel pink dress and pouting like a small child, making her face look even rounder.

"Give me the gun," Shiro said, holding his left hand towards her, but the woman only gave a step back.

"Are you the guy that texted me?" she asked, and Shiro was going to answer, try to explain everything, but Lance sneaked around him and came into view, making the woman's eyes open immediately.

"It was me who texted you," Lance said, gulping as he gave a step closer to her.

There are things in life that can shock you dearly, and Ariela had gone through quite a few of them without being shocked, so she just thought that her brain could take it all in. That was, at least, until her dead brother who had digged her out of the mud appeared in front of her with his arms open and ready for a hug.

"Lance?" the woman asked, as her eyes and mouth slowly started to open, tears already welling in them as the boy nodded. He looked ready to cry too, and although all she wanted to do was run to him and hug him, Ariela took a step backwards when he got near. "This isn't real, is it?" she asked.

"Listen, Ari. I know I've been gone without giving an explanation, but I'm back and ready to tell you everything," he said, now gesturing her to give him the gun. When she shook her head and bit her lip, the first tears rolling down, he insisted. "Ari..."

"You are dead, Lance. You can't be here," she said, voice slightly shaking. The boy frowned.

"I'm dead?" he asked, and she nodded, face twisting into a pained expression.

_Please stop. I don't want to see him. I want to wake up_.

"You are not asleep, Ari. This is real. I am not dead. The person that told you that lied," Lance said, finally getting closer when she tossed the gun on the bed in favour of covering her face. Had she said that outloud?

"The whole family is at your funeral, Lance. Don't try to trick me," she sobbed.

Lance's heart practically fell to the floor at the sound, and he quickly turned to look at Shiro, who was frowning and a little bit confused.

"Do you think...?" he started, signaling the door with his jaw, and Shiro got it immediately, clumsily stumbling out of the bedroom without taking his eyes off of Ariela. That was the person Lance thought was going to pilot the panther?

Lance slowly stepped closer, and when Ariela didn't even flinch at the sound and the feeling of him near her, he wrapped his arms around her and let her bury her head on his chest. She quickly returned the hug, and Lance felt how she was trying to force herself to stop crying, how she would clench his t-shirt and hold her breath for a while.

"You feel too real," she murmured after a few minutes, rubbing off her wet face on Lance's clothes.

"That is because I am real," he said, brushing his fingers through her hair. "I didn't die, Arie. I disappeared because I was literally abducted by aliens. In fact, there is one of our living room right now," he finished, a little chuckle making the woman look up at him, amber eyes shiny with tears.

"The Garrison... They said you had disappeared first, with a couple of friends, and then that they found your bodies in the desert," she said, and Lance mirrored her frown.

"Well, the Garrison has been hiding many things lately. The guy that just came here with me? That was Takashi Shirogane," he replied, and Ariela's eyes shot open.

"Your hero the astronaut? Hadn't he died in a crash in space?"

"That's what the Garrison told us, but the reality is that the whole crew was kidnapped by an empire of mean aliens that are currently taking over the universe. And that is actually the reason why I'm here."

# . . .

Shiro had come from upstairs looking extremely confused, and when they asked he said "I know that you can't judge a book by its cover, but this is just too much" and gracelessly flopped down in one of the sofas.

A quarter of hour passed, and then another. That was when Hunk decided to turn on the TV and introduce Allura to pop culture. She had been playing with the cellphone Lance had gotten her until then, and the second the "weird box" turned on, her eyes started glimmering again. It was really cute.

Lance didn't come down for almost two hours, but when he did, he had company.

Pidge then understood what Shiro had said. The woman in front of her was just too cute. She looked tiny next to Lance, and no one wanted to even imagine what she would look like next to Shiro, even less Hunk.

"Hello. Nice to meet you," she said, and Keith frowned, noticing the faintest trail of British accent.

"Guys, this is..., my sister, Ariela. Ari, this is the crew," Lance said, pointing at them. "Hunk, my best friend. Pidge, another friend. Keith, he used to go to the Garrison with us. You already know Shiro. And, princess Allura, from Altea." Shiro frowned.

"You already know me?" he asked, making the woman snap her eyes out of Allura. A kind and cheesy smile appeared on her face.

"Lance wanted to go to the Garrison since he was eleven years old. You were pretty famous around that time, so he was kind of obsessed with you," she said bluntly, completely ignoring Lance's eyes widening in shame and the blush creeping up his face. "He had this really big poster of you in his bedroom..." then Lance elbowed her.

" _¿Qué tocás, perro?_ " (What are you touching, dog?) she asked him, rubbing the place he had hit and looking at him with ignited eyes. He stepped back but rose his chin in challenge.

" _Cerrá la bocaza, bofe. No le dije nada a nadie_ ," (Close your big mouth, idiot. I didn't tell anything to anyone) he chewed back. Everyone's eyes were darting from one person to the other. The woman frowned at him.

"What language are they talking in that the Castle's device can't translate it?" Allura asked, catching Ariela's attention again.

Unlike all of them, she hadn't understand a single word that had flowered from the princess' mouth. The Castle's translating device only worked on you once you had been scanned by the interface.

"It's Spanish," Shiro answered, squinting as he recognized the woman's accent, trying to swallow down the ironic smile.

" _Si, bofe. Ya me tienen re mal por ser inútil y jeboso, no quiero que me jodan con esto también_ ," (Yeah, idiot. They already give me the side eye because I'm useless and a womanizer, so I don't want them to bother me with that too) Lance answered, and Ariela seemed really mad at what he had just said, eyes opening wide and leaning in closer with threatening aura.

" _¿Qué me decís, boludo?¿Qué es eso de que sos inútil?_ " (What are you saying, stupid? What is that about you being useless?) she asked.

" _Ay, no sé para qué te vine a buscar, si sos un paritorio. Después de cuento, nena_." (I don't know why I came looking for you, if you are a delivery. I'll tell you later, girl. TN: Saying that someone is a delivery is saying that they are difficult, almost painful, and a bother). And after saying that, he cut her off with a gesture of his hand. "I've already told her everything, but she isn't quite convinced, so help me convince her."

"What?" Keith asked, crossing his arms over his chest.

"I'm sorry, but you can't imagine how crazy it sounds when someone tells you about it instead of outright seeing it," Ariela murmured. Lance threw a look at Shiro and then at his arm, making the man bite his cheek and look at the floor, as he slowly raised his arm.

"When I was with the... evil aliens... They put me this," he murmured, activating the arm and letting it heat up and glow, making the woman open her eyes in surprise again.

"What is that?" she asked, getting closer and reaching out to grasp it, but Shiro quickly retreated.

"A prosthetic," Hunk said.

"A weapon," Shiro answered at the same time.

And that was the moment when he realized that he had been wrong. Indeed, he couldn't judge a book by its cover. The second he let out those words, looking at Ariela in the eye as if challenging her to come any closer, a wave of many things crossed her eyes, making them feel heavier on him, almost piercing. It was a mix of recognition, curiosity and harshness that left him baffled. He remembered seeing something similar happen with Lance one time, the eyes that always seemed to show shallow waters suddenly let you see something deeper and scarier than the ocean.

She then backed away and licked her lips, looking at the floor.

"I don't know," she sighed.

"Listen, Ari. Sis, BFF, queen of hell, my _número uno_ ," Lance started, chuckling nervously as he walked towards the woman and grabbed her by the arms, slightly crunching to put himself to her eye level. "I have gotten myself into a war, and although I would love to come back home with you and the rest of the family I won't do it until it's all over. So you can either come with me, or stay and... not know," he said, breathing out the lasts words, that put some tension into the woman's shoulders.

The silence was deafening as the two siblings stared into each other's eyes, measuring the other. It was like watching an actual fight, only a little bit more painful, because there were no signs of who would win.

"I'll do it," Ariela said firmly after almost a minute. "But under a few conditions."


	4. Sometimes I wanna slap you in your whole face (whoa oh oh)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus. This is almost 14k. I'm sorry.

Ever since the Garrison had called to the McClain household to announce that the body of their missing child had appeared (lifeless and roasted by an asteroid that had fallen the night he escaped from the institution with a couple of friends to go to the nearest city), things had... lost brightness.

The usual cheerfulness and party-like atmosphere had degraded into a silent place for grieving. Music wasn't playing at all times like it used to, maybe because Idania wanted to give physical form to he sudden silence of his son's life. Game nights were cancelled, and if you woke up at night you could hear one of the twins crying because they wanted to see their older brother. Everyone had broken down into a collective pool of tears when one of Dominique's children asked if uncle Lance would make it home for Christmas.

Ariela couldn't just leave without ending that.

It had been really hard to believe that Lance was there and completely alive, but after putting him through an extensive interrogatory and certifying that yes, that was Lance's heartbeat, she had finally believed in it, and it had brought her an indescribable joy. Almost as if a colour she couldn't see any more appeared again in her vision, or as if she suddenly recovered hearing. She needed to take that to the rest of the family.

"You want us to do what?" Pidge asked, utterly surprised.

"I want you to write letters to your families and take a picture," Ariela repeated calmly, as she kept handing pens and papers.

"I don't know if this is a good idea, Arie..." Lance started, but she cut him short with a gesture of her hand.

"Loosing a beloved family member is like becoming blind, or loosing a limb," she started. "Even if you think that them knowing that you are in deadly danger is worse than them thinking you are dead, you have to do it, because you are incredibly wrong."

"But what if we actually die?" Keith asked, tossing his paper and pen into the table, making Ariela glare at him.

"Then they will actually know what happened to you. You died fighting to defend them, not in a crash that was your fault, not in a stupid teenager fit of rebellion," she replied, without missing a beat.

"I don't know you, but I will gladly do this," Hunk said, as he sat down on a sofa and started to scribble down.

Shiro sighed, looking at Allura.

"How much time do we have?" he asked, nervously fidgeting with the pen as he thought about what he would say in his letters. Allura checked a blue device she had in the pocket of her hoodie.

"At least half a varga," she said.

"That's ten hours. We have plenty of time," Lance said. "Ari, do you know where mum keeps my spare glasses?"

"You wear glasses?" Keith asked, sounding kind of horrified and shocked.

"Yeah, he's always worn them," Hunk answered nonchalantly.

"I've been stuck with my contact lenses ever since we left Earth in Blue," Lance added, following the woman who was already walking towards the stairs.

"What could I do while you write your letters?" Allura asked, walking around the living room.

"Why don't you read a book?" Hunk asked.

"The translator device only translates audio, not text," she murmured, opening a magazine anyway and gasping as she found the fashion section. "The clothes you wear are so pretty," she whispered, a hint of envy tinting her voice.

# . . .

Hunk wrote four letters (each envelope as thing as his fingers), Shiro wrote two, Pidge one, Keith none, and Lance wrote eleven letters (all of them really long), and Ariela herself wrote five letters too, as a kind of twisted "see you soon" to her family and friends.

"Do we have to take a picture?" Shiro asked, frowning. He had also noticed Ariela taking pictures of them while writing the letters, and if he didn't like being photographed before, he hated it now.

"I need proofs that you were really in here," she said, passing the cellphone to Lance for a selfie (what a nice way to tell the world you are alive). "I even recorded Lance speaking and left it on his mother's computer," she added.

"We're taking a picture?" Allura asked exitedly, as she ran to get in the group, and then frowning at the cellphone Lance held on his hand. "Were is the camera?" she asked.

"This is the camera," Lance murmured, kind of confused.

"No, cameras are huge," Allura kept pushing.

"Not on Earth," Hunk sing-sang.

"What is she saying?" Ariela asked, frustrated. "How do you understand her, anyways?"

"We'll explain later. Now, everyone do the peace sign and smile!" Lance exclaimed, and two seconds later he took the photo. Surprisingly everyone had done what he had said, even Allura, that was side-eyeing Hunk's gesture with confusion and imitating it with a squint.

"It's actually really pretty," Pidge murmured with a soft smile.

"Send it to me so I print it and leave it with the letters. I'll go call your mother, and then we can go," Ariela said, taking a really deep and shaky breath in as she took her cellphone from the coffee table, going upstairs again.

# . . .

"Allura! What are you wearing?" Coran exclaimed when he caught a glimpse of the princess. She was wearing a pair of jeans and a hoodie, with a pair of white mid-calf boots, something pretty normal back on Earth.

"Oh, Coran! You have no idea how wonderful the Earth is! They have such pretty clothes and a lot more of technology than we thought. LOOK!" she practically screeched, showing the royal adviser her new cellphone. "It's called an eye phone. Lance bought me this little pretty plastic that prevents it from breaking if it falls down. We don't have this plastics, Coran, much less this pretty! Do you see how it shines?"

"I see, princess," the man said. He looked shocked, as if he didn't now how to take Allura being so obsessed over their planet, but he also looked incredibly happy. He hadn't seen Allura so exited in a while.

"You can tell Coran about your adventure at Earth later, Allura. Now we should show Ariela the panther," Shiro said and, surprisingly, he was smiling too.

"Oh, right. The new paladin! Where are they?" Coran asked, stepping aside from Allura and inspecting the humans. Lance moved out of the way and let him see Ariela, who was still looking around the control deck like a child on a museum. Every little light would catch her eye, reflecting on the amber irises and making them shine even more. "Oh, dear. She's tiny," Coran murmured, the slightest movement of his lips hidden by his mustache.

Lance elbowed his sister, and the woman looked around a little bit startled.

"Hello! Nice to meet you. I'm Ariela," she said, smiling widely as she extender her hand towards Coran. He took it and raised his eyebrows in surprise, smiling a little bit.

"And I'm Coran. That's a nice grip you have there," he commented, before retreating. "Well... Shall we go to the panther's hangar?" he asked, already slowly stepping backwards.

"Yeah. After that we have to take all of the stuff we got to our bedrooms," Allura commented calmly, and Coran looked surprised yet again.

"You got stuff?"

# . . .

The panther was hella intimidating. Ariela wanted to shrink under its gaze, the piercing yellow eyes seeming to follow her with hate. She would later swear she could hear a low grumbling sound, almost like a growl.

"That's the robot I'm supposed o pilot?" she asked, raising her chin instead of hunching. Allura nodded.

"This robot doesn't form a part of Voltron, like I told you before. It's its own entity, entirely," Allura said, calmly walking until she was next to Ariela and putting a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder. "There is no pressure. If you two don't match it's okay."

"I'll still stay even if I can't pilot it," Ariela announced, her eyes flickering to Lance for a second. It sounded like a challenge, and when Allura nor Coran said anything, she looked back at the panther. Then she took a deep breath and started walking towards the robot, the black shield of energy growing bigger and bigger.

_Worried much, paladin? You know you are not enough, so don't even try_ she heard a deep voice in her head say, her eyes shooting open in surprise and her pace stuttering for a second, but she kept going.

"I'm going to do this anyways," she murmured, licking her lips -her mouth suddenly felt too dry- as she reached the field. "I will still be around to bother you, even if you don't open up, so you might as well do so and have a little bit of fun with us on the battlefield." That sentence finished with a half nervous half amused chuckle, as she slowly rose her hand to rest it on the shield.

Everyone held their breaths, almost without noticing, as they waited for something to happen. Ariela had closed her eyes, overly-conscious of the buzz of the energy against her fingers, counting in her mind as the seconds passed.

When a whole minute went by, she opened her eyes and heard someone clear their throat behind her. It set off a spark of anger in her.

"Why don't you do it?" she asked, her fingernails digging into the shield.

_Excuse me? Do I have to respond to you?_ the same deep voice asked, but there was a tremor there, a hesitation that seemed foreign. The tingling in the tips of her fingers started to become stronger, as if the energy wanted to slip into her, but there was something pulling it back.

"Let it happen," she chewed, pressing her other hand against the shield and pushing. She didn't notice, but she was gritting her teeth.

_No. I don't want to_ the voice groaned. It sounded breathless, as if it was fighting her. And then...

_It is her. Let her in_ another voice said, smooth and imperative.

The field suddenly went down, the energy concentrating on her hands and bursting, electricity going up her arms and making her yelp as her feet pushed her forward into the panther's zone.

"Ari!" she heard Lance exclaim, but her ears were buzzing.

_Serve me well, paladin_ the second voice said.

Ariela stumbled down onto the floor, scratching her arms, trying to rid herself of the itch the electricity had left behind and trying to calm herself down. The buzzing that left her dizzy wasn't helping one bit to the panic slowly building up on the bottom of her chest.

She was so focused on trying to breathe normally, that she didn't notice Lance running towards her nor the panther activating itself.

A wave of raged thoughts washed into the woman's mind, as she felt a strange pull in different parts of her body, almost as if there were small strings attached to them. She could hear the panther screaming its angered thoughts into her mind, but couldn't react. She didn't even flinch when the robot stood up and slammed its feet next to her, only to advance and meet Lance halfway towards her.

"LANCE, GET AWAY FROM IT!" Hunk screamed.

"ARIELA!"

The woman only reacted when the panther roared loudly and attacked Lance, trying to claw him in half.

Suddenly, she was outmatching the panther in anger and standing up.

"STOP!" she screamed, practically roared, as she slammed her fist against one of the back feet of the panther, making it suddenly freeze in shock. The room filled instantly with tension as the robot slowly turned to face her, growling lowly.

_Who do you think you are to boss me around, puny girl?_ the panther asked in her mind.

"Apparently I'm your pilot, and that means you have to obey me."

_Why do you think I resisted so hard?_ it chuckled.

"Well, you didn't resist hard enough. So now you suck it up and stop being an asshole!" she screamed, pointing at the floor, and quirking an eyebrow as the panther huffed and sat down with a loud bang that was obviously on purpose.

"Oh, dear," Allura said, covering her mouth with her hands.

"Ari, are you okay?" Lance asked when he finally got to her.

"That bitch shocked me!" she complained, rubbing her arms and frowning, but then Lance caught her in a tight hug.

"You did it," he said, excitement dyeing his voice and making the woman smile.

# . . .

The McClain all assimilated things the same way. And, although her surname was as different from theirs as her blood, Ariela was a McClain too. So, the realization of her actual situation didn't hit her until she was still unpacking at three in the morning Earth-time, something making her restless.

And now there she was, gripping her bathroom sink as she stared at her reflection. Her face was already red and, although tears had stopped falling down a few minutes ago, her lower lip was still trembling in a pout. The rest of her body was shaking too, and her knuckles white from gripping the sides of the sink too hard.

"Oh, God," she gasped out, eyes still nailed on the reflected ones.

This was the only bad thing that she couldn't get rid off from her times before moving with her aunt Valeria to Cheviot Hills. She would always take her reflection as another person, and that other person would always be the one to tell her to keep her shit together, to keep moving or she would die, like sharks.

"You have to do this just one more time," her reflection told her. Suddenly, she was fifteen again, gripping the sink of the living room bathroom and trying to calm herself down while Lance cried and screamed his lungs out on the next room.

She took a deep breath, nailing her sight on her own pupils and focusing on the patterns of the irises.

"One more time," she insisted, nodding. "One more."

# . . .

"Good morning," Ariela sing-sang as she walked into the kitchen, still wearing her pajamas and hair a mess. Lance acknowledged her with a gesture of his hand while the other paladins, the only ones in the kitchen, murmured an answer.

"I see you looking around. No, there is no coffee. Yes, we have a replacement, although it's not pretty," the boy told her, passing her a jar with a soupy and green liquid in it, making Ariela's eyes go wide. That was when Lance noticed that she had been crying more last night, but he kept his mouth shut.

"Give me a sip from yours to see what it tastes like," she asked, already taking the mug form his hands and sipping from it, her face wrinkling into an expression of disgust, similar of those when you made a baby eat a lemon. "This is the most disgusting thing that I have tasted in my whole life and I'm offended you tried to make me drink it."

"I know you can't function without coffee. I was just trying to save our asses," Lance chuckled, passing his left arm through the woman's shoulders and pulling her close. She rested her head against his chest. "You should still eat something, though. Hunk is the one that knows his way around the kitchen, so you'll have to ask him."

"Yeah, talking about having to eat something..." the woman started, noticing how she could feel the boy's ribs against her hand. She turned to look Lance in the eye, and he noticed he was in a for a bad lecture that would last a whole week. "You've gotten a lot thinner. Not in the healthy way," she pointed out, voice low as if she didn't want the rest to hear their conversation.

"I know. I'm not trying to evade that one. But, you'll see that being here is a little bit stressful, and even Shiro's gotten thinner, and he eats like a fucking pig," Lance murmured, hugging the woman closer, and when she frowned thinking that it was a distraction, he said: "You have no idea how much I've missed you."

"Is that an invitation to have a heart to heart talk?" she asked, sliding her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly.

"When hasn't it been one?" Lance chuckled in response, his breath catching in his throat and making Ariela's jaw tense. If Lance went and _asked_ to have a heart to heart talk, he was far from feeling just a little bit bad (meaning "I have my life put together, but only thanks to my best friend forever: tape").

Keith squinted at the pair that was leaning against the counters, slightly tapping Shiro in the arm, making the man pull his eyes away from his plate of food goo.

"Those two are really touchy feely, aren't they?" he asked, and it took Shiro a second to notice that he actually meant it, making the man snort and drop his fork in the plate in favour of patting the teen in the back..

"Seriously? Are you surprised? I mean, it's Lance."

"Good morning, paladins," Allura greeted as she walked in, shocking them slightly. Instead of having gone back to her Altean dress, she was wearing a training outfit from Adidas, all flowers and pink.

"I told you it would look great on you!" Lance exclaimed with a smile, but when Allura mistook the compliment with flirting and turned to talk to Keith, Lance swept his tongue through his teeth and sighed, trying to let out the frustration that had dripped on his mood.

"Wow. Rude," Ariela whispered. "Is this involved with the thing that's bothering you?" she asked. Lance made a gesture that indicated that it was, but maybe only slightly.

"Ariela," Allura called, making the woman look at the princess. "I was thinking that you should train with me, at least until you catch up with the rest of the team. Besides, you don't have to focus much on bonding as a team with the paladins, as the panther fights alone," she finished explaining.

Swallowing hard, Ariela tried to push the panic of being alone for a lot of time with someone completely new down her throat.

"Sure," she replied, smiling. "Sounds like a great idea."

# . . .

"I didn't know that Allura trained," Hunk commented, as he switched to stretching his other leg.

"Of course she does," Coran said with a smirk as he looked down on them, with the aura of proud parent Pidge knew so well. "You should be thankful she doesn't train with you. She would use you to clean the floor," he finished with a chuckle.

"Seriously? But, wouldn't it be better for us to train together? I mean, she could teach us," Keith said. Lance, surprisingly, stayed quiet, resting his chin in the floor as he stretched forward, making Hunk huff. He knew Lance was ridiculously flexible, but this was just showing off.

"The truth is that she hasn't been in a training deck ever since we woke up. Between the two of us, we have only managed to update one tenth of the Castle's information in these three months, so we've been kind of busy. And with me training you, almost all the work has fell upon her," Coran told them, voice dropping lower as if he feared Allura hearing him.

"You know you could ask us for help, right? It might even be good for us to learn what this Castle has storaged," Pidge said, but she seemed to be chewing the words, as if she didn't like saying them, or as if there was a second meaning behind it.

"Don't worry. You have to make up five years of training, so there is no time for you to worry about such things," the Altean smiled, and Pidge lowered her gaze to the floor.

"Talking about training, I wonder how Ariela is doing. If Allura is so tough..." Hunk said, and Lance shrugged him off with a proud smile.

"Ariela is ten times tougher. She'll be fine," he said.

# . . .

"Mercy," the woman huffed out, punching the mat in which she was being pressed down, and Allura let go of her killer grip, allowing her to finally breathe.

She could feel sweat pooling everywhere and muscles straining, ready to give out, when she stood up. Allura was a fucking monster as a trainer, and Ariela didn't have the courage to speak out against it because she had just seen the woman lift at least thrice her wight, and she didn't want to make her mad.

"Lance had said that you were almost a professional in fighting styles. What happened?" the princess asked, shedding the jacket of the training outfit and putting her loose hair up in a bun. She was slightly panting, and it seemed that she was about to break a sweat. Ariela, meanwhile, was wishing for the reaper to collect her soul once and for all.

"I am. I've been kickboxing for eleven years now, and I even work as a teacher," Ariela said, pants breaking her sentence in blocks. "You are just... an alien. A ruthless alien."

"Oh, thank you," Allura replied, positively beaming. Then, the serious face took over again. "I'll tell you what I've noticed. You use a fighting style that relies a lot in strength and a size. You are strong, but for someone your size anyways, and really small, so this fighting style won't help you much in real life." The human looked back at her with a deep frown.

"You mean that you want me to learn a whole new fighting style from zero? You know that that takes years, even months at the best, right?" she asked, trying to reap the white tank-top that was sticking to her skin because of the sweat, groaning in disgust.

"But now this is all you will be focusing on," Allura replied, standing up and offering a hand to Ariela. "I don't know what you used to do back on Earth, but I'm certain you were far from being a soldier, other things occupied your time and mind. Living here and adapting to the routines will change your body and mindset faster than you think," she explained.

"If you say so," Ariela said, sounding a little bit unsure but smiling anyways. The princess beamed again.

"Perfect!" Allura exclaimed, before turning around and stretching her back shoulders as she looked around, thinking of what to do next.

"I was majoring in psychology, by the way," Ariela said to break the silence that was awkward for her. The princess looked back at her, utterly lost. "When I was back on Earth. I was studying this thing we have that's called psychology. I was about to finish my studies this year."

"Oh, so you were an erudite!" Allura exclaimed, completely amazed, and Ariela blushed, shaking her head.

"Oh, no. It's pretty normal on Earth to spend years studying a certain subject. That's how you have access to a job," she explained. "It's not like we spend all of our lives studying."

"Uh, I get it. So, what is a psychology?" Allura asked, frowning at the floor.

"Um, well. It is the study of the human mind and how it functions," Ariela explained, following the princess as she walked towards a wall.

"How the human mind functions?"

"Yeah. Like..., the effects that memories have on people, for example. Um, mechanisms of learning, conditioning, emotions, the unconscious and the dreams... Stuff like that," she explained.

"Oh. That sounds really interesting! You are basically studying the _arimas_ of the human beings!" the princess stated, as she opened a panel of sorts in the wall and started putting things in; maybe some sort of code.

"I guess so, but I don't know what arimas are," she answered in a murmur.

"Oh... Well, it's a complicated concept, and Coran is much better at explaining this kind of things than I am." She said, as she finally closed the panel and a series of beeping sounds were heard. "Now, as you are really tired to do more hand to hand training, we'll get started with the guns," Allura explained, as she pointed with a lazy gesture of her hand at the compartment that had opened before them, showing a whole armory storaged in the wall.

"Jesus Christ."

# . . .

"Dude," Ariela started even before the door had opened completely. "Allura is a fucking monster. She _destroyed_ me."

"Glad to know you had a nice first day," Lance chuckled as the woman let herself fall on top of him in his bed, rolling to lay next to him, looking at the ceiling. He turned to look at her, locking eyes and reading his mind to talk about all the things he wanted to talk.

"Ready to spill the beans, little brother?" she asked, gifting him a sweet smile .

He rolled to his side, burying his face on her chest and enjoying the scent of soap. It threw him back across years, to the time where he would wait for her to arrive from the gym to talk about life until his mother came bursting in the room, demanding them to go downstairs to eat something. It made him feel safe, back at home, and maybe as if he was again an eleven-year-old whose biggest problem was his feelings during his first kiss.

"Being honest? No," he replied after a few seconds, voice muffled by the woman's t-shirt.

"Okay. Don't worry, you don't have to start. I'll just do a checking." Lance shrank against her. "Have you been doing yoga?"

"No."

"Meditating?"

"No."

"Do you skip meals?"

"Nah, too hungry to do so."

"Are you sleeping well?"

"Kinda. Great if you compare me to Shiro or Pidge."

"I'm guessing you are not keeping your journal."

"I wish I had the time."

"From Natasha Romanoff to Bruce Banner, how bad are you taking this whole deal?" Lance shot his head up and looked at Ariela in the eye with a smile before answering:

"Tony Stark during Iron Man 3." The woman frowned at him, concern and anger washing over her as she put a hand on his nape.

"Lance..." she started. He dropped his head against her again.

"I was just joking. I haven't had any panic attacks yet, I'm sleeping a solid of four hours a night and I'm eating healthily," he said, his lips forming a thin line because maybe he had lied a little bit in all of those statements.

There was a long silence, in which Ariela gave herself a few seconds to be scared, the memory of Lance shutting down making her grind her teeth. But then she took in a deep breath and took control over herself again.

"Lance. If you want to have a heart to hear talk, it needs to be honest," she stated, voice low and serious, making the boy groan.

"I know, I know. It's just that I want to talk about other things," he replied.

"Like?"

"I don't know, like... How much I have missed all of you, and how I hadn't really realized how much I needed you until I couldn't talk to you anymore?" he said, shrugging to act nonchalant, but curling himself closer to Ariela once he finished, feeling the tears prickling at his eyes.

"Oh, darling..." the woman started as she caressed his hair and scrapped at his nape, making Lance sniff as he tried not to sob. "You've been feeling isolated? Wasn't Hunk your best friend?"

"I know, it's just... We've only known each other for a year and coins, and we haven't actually met outside the Garrison. He's still a great guy, but you know how hard it is to tell someone about things like this when you don't know how they'll react, and now is not the perfect time to just go and ramble about the demons under my road with people I need to have a no-problem-relationship with."

A long silence proceeded, in which they just focused on the other's breathing.

"I understand; it is a difficult situation indeed," she started. voice sounding lower, as if she had a knot in her throat. "But you have me now. And we both know that I can help you only if you let me."

"You know I want to let you help me... It's just hard."

"Don't worry. Talking to your big sis about your feelings is like riding a bike, or picking up chicks... You never actually forget it," Ariela joked, pushing his head slightly, making him chuckle. "But you have to retake yoga and meditating, and your diary," she added.

"Oh, no," Lance groaned, and a hand sneaked under his chin to lift his face, meeting Ariela's motherly eyes and resisting the urge to roll his.

"You know that it helps you to have time to think without anyone looking around, and you love yoga. And when you write stuff down you can simply give it to me to read, instead of having to go through the pain of choosing words in the moment," she explained herself, using her slow and professional tone.

"Yeah, yeah. I never said I wouldn't do it. Just complaining because it means getting up earlier," he mumbled. He nested his face on her chest again, and another silence followed, but this time it was quickly filled with them humming a song from Hercules, Lance starting it and Ariela picking up the beat without batting an eyelash.

"We'll talk about all the stuff you _actually_ wanted to talk labout ater? When you write down everything?" she asked, once they were finished with the humming.

"Ye..." Lance started, but then stopped when he heard the door sliding open. They both rose their heads to find a surprised looking Keith under the threshold of the door, squinting at them.

"We're about to have dinner. You're late," he said, before leaving, a trail of his grumpiness practically visible behind him.

"Geez, edgelord," Ariela sighed. "Is everyone in this castle but Hunk and Coran hella rude?" she asked, as Lance got up and pulled her out of the bed too.

"Nah. They're just like that with me."

# . . .

Hunk had slowly but surely got used to Allura's silent presence. Ever since she had started to just lounge at his lion’s hangar while he studied blueprints and books, waiting in case he had a question as she updated the data of the Castle with a small pad, it was something that didn't make him uneasy anymore. Still, it was something new having her in the kitchen.

"Thank you for helping me with dinner tonight, princess," he said, shooting a side smile at her, as he poured sauce over their replacement for mashed potatoes.

"Oh, it's nothing, Hunk. I enjoy spending time with you," she said happily, passing him another plate. "But I was wondering..." _Oh, here it comes_. "Has Lance ever talked to you about Ariela?" The princess' voice sounded weird, as if it was hiding many mixed feelings and doubts.

Hunk frowned, as he turned and leaned on the counter, crossing his eyes and thinking.

"Well..." he started, recalling the many past-midnight conversations he had had with Lance. "I think he talked about her, but he never actually said her name. He just calls her the "little shit". And the stories were almost always about pretty crazy situations, often involving alcohol," he said, finishing with an awkward laugh, remembering this one story where they actually ran away from the police.

"Oh..." was all Allura said, seeming even more puzzled now that she counted with that information.

"Why do you ask?" Hunk poked, lolling his head to the side curiously, an endearing gesture the princess had noticed some time ago.

"I was wondering..., why she is fit to pilot the panther. I talked with her while we were training, and she seems to go beyond the simplicity of the panther's bloodlust, its "just survive" mode. She even studies this difficult thing called psychology were they study people's _arimas_ ," she explained herself.

"Ariela is a psychologist?" Hunk asked, voice raising a little bit with excitement, surprising Allura. His mind was already rushing with all the things that having a psychologist on board meant.

_She can help Shiro_ he thought. He could feel Gold purring happily on the back of his mind, really content. He knew she was probably already passing the information to Black.

"Yeah, I think so," Allura shrugged.

They silently returned to the duty of filling the plates with food, before she left a plate on the counter and turned to look at him again, with another question on her mind.

"Do you think she'll like me? Like... enough to be friends?" she asked after taking in a deep and shaky breath, this time actually surprising Hunk. He turned to her, frowning again, already stuttering even if he hadn't opened his mouth yet.

"I-I don't really know. I don't know her. You should ask Lance about that. Why?" Allura shrugged again.

"Back on Earth... Lance was acting surprisingly friendly and..., you know, platonically. I would like to have a girl friend again, now that I have the chance," she answered, eyes nailed on the top of the counter, making Hunk smile.

"That's so sweet!" he squealed, making the princess turn to him scared and shocked. "I'm sorry."

# . . .

Dinner was silent, surprisingly. Although Keith was looking at Lance with his usual "judging frown" (as Lance had decided to call it when he had to justify why he was spontaneously picking up a fight with Keith) the other boy seemed too busy to notice, as he talked in whispers with his sister.

"You were right, Shiro eats like a pig," the woman said, voice almost unhearable, and Lance snorted. "He's still cute, though."

"Cute? Don't you want to say hot?" Lance asked, and his sister shrugged.

"I dunno. I think his cute with..., you know, his really slanted eyes and his little white tuft," she said.

"But he could break us both in half. He is like..., really buff!"

"But he's also soft. He is boft. Like Hunk," Ariela sentenced, smiling cutely, but then she dropped the smile and her eyebrows shot up. "Wanna know who's the hot one?"

"Allura?"

"Motherfucking Allura," she nodded. Lance snorted. "No, seriously. You don't know what it's like to be pinned down with a judo hold by that princess, dude. Blood stopped rushing to my brain, if you know what I mean." Lance laughed out loud, calling everyone's attention and making his sister blush. "Keep it on the down low, you doufus!"

"So, Ariela... How was your first day at training?" Coran asked, trying to contain his smile when he saw that Lance was still trying not to laugh.

"Good, I think. I still have a lot to learn, though," Ariela answered quickly, her eyes shortly drifting to Allura and then taking a gulp of water.

"Tomorrow I'll start teaching her _dizhitsu_. Thought it would be a better fitting fighting style for her. And I'm also taking her to the hangar, see if the panther can behave for once," Allura told them, and Lance patted Ariela on the back to show her his support.

"Wait a minute," Shiro said. He had just lifted his eyes from the food, having finished his third plate, and had noticed something. "Where is Pidge?"

"I went looking for her, but couldn't find her," Keith said, shrugging.

"She might be tinkering inside her lion, so you didn't see her," Hunk said with a smile. "Don't worry, Shiro. She'll still come by the kitchen to eat," he told their leader, who seemed to relax a little bit, although he also looked embarrassed.

"See?" Ariela said to Lance, back to whispering. "He's _boft_ ".

# . . .

Coran was used to have good nights of sleep but, for some unknown reason, he just couldn't seem to stop tossing around in his bed that night. He had tried to put some ambiental sounds, drinking a special tea made out of the few Altean flowers they had left, and he had also taken a cold bath, the chill almost managing to relax him completely... almost.

After an hour and a half of trying, he had given up and just went up the library to look for something to read.

It was pretty weird, he realized when he sat down in the dead quiet library, to walk around the Castle alone. Ten thousand years back, you just couldn't be alone unless you had your own private room, because there was people hanging out or working at all times. It was painful, the silence a dreadful reminder of how the crew of three thousand Alteans had lowered to two of them and six new humans. Maybe that was why they didn't move from the rooms they strictly needed.

Coran was rereading the same sentence for the tenth time when the door to the library opened, revealing a tired figure walking over towards one of the tables, opening a drawer, and taking out many things before sitting down and starting to scribble down.

"Lance?" the Altean asked, once the figure extended their hand to turn on one of the desk lights, and the head of the boy shot up, squinting at the point from where the voice had come from.

"Coran? What are you doing up?" Lance asked, quickly standing up when the man started walking towards him.

"I couldn't sleep, so I decided to read something. I should be asking you that, anyways," he murmured, brushing his mustache as he examined the boy, just noticing then what he was wearing. "Is that the undersuit of the armor?" he asked.

Lance crossed his arms on top of his chest, as if he could avoid Coran confirming that yes, it was the undersuit of the armor indeed. He also smelt awful, like sweat and even hint of blood. Under great scrutiny, the Altean could discover reddening bruises and even a small thread of blood running down Lance's neck from behind his ears.

"I was just... Training casually. You know, doing some laps and lifting some weights," Lance shrugged off.

"Don't lie to me, boy," Coran said. "You wouldn't wear the undersuit to casually train, and you are pretty hurt for someone who was just lifting some weights and running."

Silence fell, and Lance was ready to just breakdown crying. He wanted to slap himself when he felt his lower lip quivering, wondering why being under Coran's hard eyes made him want to curl up, sob, and then die. He didn't want him to know, to look at him like this. Why couldn't he have this shameful secret? Yeah, he was shit in everything, so he had to make an effort to catch up. At least let him do that in peace.

A screen appeared in front of Coran. The tech in Lance's suit was picking up abnormal heart rates for his actual level of mobility, and when the man's eyes drifted towards him, Lance's breathing started to get shallow, slowly turning into hyperventilation.

"Lance, hey, what's wrong?" Coran asked, stepping closer to the boy and putting his hands on his shoulders.

"It's nothing... Just a little nervous thing humans do." The man frowned harder as Lance suddenly stopped breathing for a few seconds, only to take a shaky breath as he nervously ran his hands through his hair and tugged at it. "I'm..., hah. I'm sorry. I don't know why I'm like this," the boy insisted, fake chuckles cutting through the words.

"Lance, I'm afraid your little nervous thing is a nervous breakdown," Coran said, tugging him towards one of the soft sofas and forcing him to sit down. "Do you need something? Water? Maybe a cup of tea?"

"I'm..." Lance started, licking his lips as he tried to fish for the words. What did he want? What did he need?

"It's okay if you just want to wait, boy. We can talk about this tomorrow. I only want to know how much you've hurt yourself on the training deck," Coran insisted, squeezing Lance's shoulder to ground him, making the blue paladin blink at him, as if he were confused by the other's presence.

"Hurt?"

# . . . 

It was early. Too early for anyone but him to be awake at least. Shiro knew it because ever since living in the Castle, no one had ever walked out of their bedroom for at least another half an hour, those times being exceptional.

His head was clearer now that he had managed to pass out for five hours straight, a dreamless sleep that made him feel emotionally weaker when he woke up but still helped his sleep-deprived brain, and (supposedly) no one would bother him, so he had made his bed and just laid down in it to think.

Okay. They had made it out of that awful situation. Keith had made it out alive, the Castle was "almost" fully functional again, and they had an extra paladin now. It was all good! Although he was still plummeting down.

_Maybe I should just give you to Allura_ he told Black, half joking and half actually considering the option.

_Even if princess Allura has exceptional leader qualifications and is really strong willed, I'm afraid she's not compatible with us_ the lioness replied, making Shiro frown. Us? _Worry not. I've been told by Yel..., Gold that her pilot has an answer to your problems_.

"Who? Hunk?" Shiro asked outloud, surprised. And then the door opened.

_Speaking of the devil_ Black hummed.

"Shiro?" Hunk asked, giving a hesitating step into the room, voice low. "Are you awake?" He gave another step closer.

"Don't worry, Hunk. I'm awake," Shiro said, shuffling to his side to look at him better. "Why are you up so early?" he asked.

"I needed to talk to you, about something I know. And I thought you would appreciate it if it was in private," Hunk quickly answered, firmly stepping in front of Shiro, as if he was going to stand up for something Shiro would hate.

"Allura told me Ariela is a psychologist," he said, voice rushing out of his mouth like it was some deep secret he needed to get out of his chest. Shiro just looked around, wondering what to answer.

"Umm... Good for her..., I guess," was the option he decided on, making Hunk sigh in frustration.

"Look, Shiro... I know that if it weren't because I've found you during some of your..., attacks or whatever they are..., not even I would know about your PTSD. I imagine how hard it must be to admit it to someone," Hunk started, giving a step closer to the bed, as Shiro sat up.

"I don't have PTSD," Shiro contradicted, and the man would swear he had never seen someone look so done with something as Hunk looked that moment.

"C'mon, man," was all the boy answered.

A long pause followed.

"Yeah, I might have a little bit of PTSD." Hunk groaned so loudly that Shiro was afraid it would wake the others up. "I might have PTSD, but I'm still fine. I don't need to talk about it with someone!"

Hunk turned to him, his eyes looking like they could melt a hole through steel.

"We both know that's not true, Shiro," he murmured. Both of them swallowed hard, remembering what had happened at the propeller room from their different points of view. "I'm not going to miraculously be around you every time something bad happens to you, so I want to make the risk as small as possible," he explained himself, finally gaining the courage to go and sit next to Shiro on the bed, patting him gently on the back. "I'm sure she is a nice woman, and she won't mind helping you."

"The problem is not that I don't know her, Hunk. I don't want nor need to talk about this with anyone. I've managed so far, and I'll continue to do so,” Shiro talked back, his eyes nailed on his lap, not daring to look at Hunk. He was able to see the boy’s hands curling into fists though.

“Okay. I’ll leave you alone for now,” he said in a whisper, quickly making his way out of the room and leaving Shiro alone and in complete silence again.

_Well_ Black started with her disappointed whine mother voice _That could have gone better_.

# . . .

Ariela’s presence in the castle didn’t really make a change in the time she had been there. One week later, and they only saw her during meal time and casually caught a glimpse of her on the hallways, or in Lance’s bedroom. Pidge barely remembered how she sounded or looked, and them not seeing her didn’t help Hunk’s statement of “She’s a nice gal, you’ll see”. Shiro had never been more indifferent of someone in his life.

On the other hand, Allura seemed brighter and livelier. This being because she finally had a motive to get her ass off of a chair and someone to talk with. Turns out Ariela was into clothes and hair as much as she was, just like fighting styles and weapons. They would be casually talking about how Allura could do her hair to spice things up while the woman hit a perfect target with an assault riffle she had started to practice with the day before.

Ariela’s company was refreshing for the princess and, although they mostly talked about really shallow subjects, they sometimes went into much more deeper things while resting after a hard training session, both laying on the floor and looking at the ceiling, occasionally sipping from their water packs. This deeper subjects were things like Allura’s past in Altea or the nature of a human being.

“Ever since the guys started living here and actually talking with me...” Allura started the afternoon of that space-Friday. She could feel Ariela’s panting becoming softer until it finally stopped, as she tried to make an effort to listen to the princess. “It sounds like you have many more emotions than we do. Do you think it’s a physiological thing?”

A deep silence followed once she was done, and Allura turned to her side to check if Ariela was okay after it became a really long one, only to discover the woman looking at the ceiling with her thinking face on.

“I can’t really say something sure about this,” she started after a few minutes. “It could be that, or it could be just differences in out languages.”

“Language?” Allura asked almost immediately, frowning. “The castle doesn’t invent new words to translate just like that.”

Ariela chuckled, a soft sound that sounded like a soft rain falling over a lake.

“I don’t mean it that way… You see, humans have a thing about trying to achieve perfection, and that includes how we express our thoughts and feelings too. There are many different words to refer to one range of emotions with the slightest variations. Do you have something like that?” the woman asked, turning to Allura with a slight frown, not being sure if she had made herself clear.

“Well… Not officially, but I made up this thing… There’s anger, dry anger, and wet anger.” Ariela frowned harder. “Well, there’s anger: when you want to punch someone until their teeth fall out. Then there’s dry anger: when you just want to kill that person and everyone’s family and watch them burn because you know you wouldn’t care. And, the wet anger: when you want to cry because you feel weak or small and that makes you angry,” she explained herself, and Ariela _ahed_

“Yeah, I get what you’re saying. Your anger would be being mad, the dry anger would be actual anger, and the wet anger would be frustration.”

Another long silence. This time, it was Allura who broke it.

“Why so many words, though? Why that need of accuracy?” Ariela shrugged.

“We are not a species that can go on in life without making themselves heard and understood. That’s why there are revolutions and civil wars. When something makes the chemicals in out brains go crazy we need everyone to hear about it, because we might go insane if we don’t.”

“Revolutions? As in more than one?” _The tiny and cute people have made more than one revolution? They actually_ fight _?_ Allura thought, watching with wide eyes as Ariela nodded.

“Every single human has a voice and wants to be heard, and those who don’t is because resignation won them over,” she explained, and when her words weren’t enough for Allura, she continued. “It feels like a fire, burning next to out hearts, in the middle of rib cage. The more it burns, the more we want to speak up for ourselves,” she finished, a hand on top of her chest demonstrating the place she was speaking about to the princess.

Allura’s eyes went even wider, her right hand flying to that place too, as she took in a shaky breath.

“I’ve felt that too! How come I didn’t know what it was?” she gasped out, yanking a sweet smile out of Ariela, who shook her head.

“How come I _”know”_ what it is? There are questions that we can’t answer… I still believe it has to do something with your language, though. I love how it sounds, but I’ve heard you use the same word for many different things, so it sounds quite limited,” Ariela answered.

“You actually pay attention to what I say? Like… Not the translation?”

“Of course! I love learning different languages! I’m already fluent at five different Earth languages and I definitely want to learn more,” she answered, smiling brightly.

_Okay, that’s just too much_ Allura thought, wanting to scream because How could that tiny adorable and wise bean be the matching pilot of a bloodthirsty monster that shoots first and asks questions later? She had seen the panther in action, and she had met its previous paladin. There were no connections with Ariela _at all_ , despite the similarities on their names.

She sighed.

“Wanna go to try and crack the panther again?” Allura asked, her voice sounding muffled against the floor. Ariela made a cringy face.

“Honestly? No.”

“If the barrier went down it’s because you capable of being its pilot, Ariela. Don’t let its thickheadedness put you down like that.” Now, Ariela sighed.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. It’s just…, such a bother.”

_Finally! Something we both agree on!_ the panther butted in, making its ever present known. Ever since space-Tuesday, Ariela had been conscious of this kind of buzzing on the back of her mind, and how she got second hand feelings and thoughts from it. It was the area that was connected to the panther, always watching her every move and sometimes making a comment or two to piss her off.

“Ha ha, really funny,” she scoffed.

# . . .

No one saw Allura or Ariela until dinner had already begun.

They were all exhausted, almost as if something had been draining them from their energy that day, so no one had really commented on it, at least until the two women entered the dining room. Allura looked like she had just witnessed a murder and Ariela was fuming.

“Stupid alien robot,” she huffed as she let herself fall down into the chair that Lance had kept empty for her.

“I’m supposing that the encounter with the panther did not end well,” Coran announced, and Allura just dropped her head on the table as a response. “That bad, huh?”

“He literally sent me flying across the room when I said that he was a cocky bastard. He literally just picked me up with his tail and _fiuuuum_! Fucking flung me.” Lance snorted as he caught Shiro’s and Hunk’s horrified looks, and Allura followed suit.

“That part was quite funny. You did call it a cocky bastard after all. But I think the best was when it literally sat down giving you its back and refused to acknowledge your existence,” she said, the leftover of her soft laughter giving away the fact that, now that she wasn’t on danger, it had been fun.

“It’s like that moody cat that you left back at home to go to college and is mad at you when you come back,” Ariela whispered, finally picking up her fork and blindly putting food in her mouth, frowning at the unknown and confusing flavor.

“Maybe I could give you some tips on how to deal with the panther. I knew its previous pilot after all,” Coran said, and when Ariela met his eyes with gleaming ones, he smiled. “We talk after dinner, how about that?” She nodded.

“What about you? How are you going with training?” Allura asked, and Keith rose his eyebrows in surprise. Allura never asked about their training, at least not to them.

“It was quite good!” Shiro exclaimed. “Hunk is getting better at aiming his bayard, Pidge managed to pin Lance down, and Keith almost got me while sparring,” he said with a small smile.

A short silence followed as everyone but Ariela continued in with their food.

“What about you, Lance?” she asked, gently nudging him on the side, noticing how the boy tensed up the same instant it happened.

“I didn’t really did well today. I was feeling out of it,” he murmured, eyes watching how his fork mixed the weird pasta-like-thing.

_Okay, I don’t even know him but that is like…, a scarlet flag about someone feeling bad about something _, surprisingly, the panther said, making Ariela’s eyebrows shoot up. He had never talked to her in such a comfortable and almost friendly way.__

___I know. I’ve been trying to get him to tell me what’s wrong ever since I got here, but Lance McClain here is a hard nut to crack_ she answered back, tried to let the panther feel how open she was about talking with him; a startled and foreign sensation flowed to her the second she did it, but the panther quickly regained his composure._ _

___Yeah. The previous blue paladin was like that too_. Then it was radio silence._ _

__“Does your lion talk to you?” Ariela asked in a whisper to Lance, ignoring how Keith’s eyes flew towards her the second she turned to talk to him._ _

__“Yeah, all the time. That’s how we bonded so much in so little time. Coran even said that we seem to have a better relationship than she had with her previous paladin,” he said, starting of neutrally but ending with a small and proud smile._ _

__“Wow, and that _is a thing_. Good for you, sunshine. But, why am I surprised? If you’re great, of course the space cat would prefer you,” she praised him, resting her head on his shoulder and loving it when Lance’s smile grew. Oh boy, the things this idiots were loosing by being assholes._ _

__There was another silence, this one not so awkward, but it was broken by an awkward throat clearing._ _

__“Em, I was thinking that tomorrow we could all spare a few minutes of our time and go together to the common room,” Allura started, making everyone burrow their frowns. “Today I realized that I have been making decisions all by myself and that, as Shiro said a few weeks ago, we don’t actually have a plan. So, I guessed that having a meeting and discussing out options would be the best.” She cleared her throat one more time before picking up the cutlery she had left on top of her food to avoid the surprised gazes._ _

__“That sounds amazing,” Hunk said with a genuine smile._ _

# . . .

__“Thanks for helping me picking everything up, Ariela,” Coran said with a smile._ _

__“Oh, it’s nothing. I used to do it every night back at home,” she answered, hopping to sit on top of the counter and starting to dangle her legs, like an anxious child. “So, you have tips about dealing with the panther?” she asked, and the Altean felt an ugly itch spread through his _elakie_. He regretted lying to her, but just a little bit._ _

__“Actually, no. The panther is, indeed, a cocky bastard and I have no idea how its previous paladin managed to deal with it, though she was much more insistent than it and kind of scary too.” He took in a deep breath as he leaned his weight against the island in the middle of the kitchen, crossing his arms on top of his chest and letting the concern he had been feeling since the previous night show on his face. “No, I lied to you because I needed to talk to you without raising suspicion from our favourite paladin,” he said, his smile mirroring the woman’s when the words “favourite paladin” left his mouth._ _

__“I’m guessing you know much more about what Lance has been dealing with this last…, almost four months,” she admitted, slowly nodding and stopping the movement of her legs._ _

__“We all know he has felt ridiculously homesick ever since the first night… And I knew he had some kind of inferiority complex when it came to his teammates, but I thought it was just a shallow business, nothing too serious.”_ _

__“Oh, god, I see where this is going.”_ _

__“Last night I couldn’t sleep and I found him on the library. He had just been practising for two hours and pretended to study Altean. I don’t know where, but he found a notebook and filled it with notes. I think he can already read and comprehend basic texts, and that must take a lot of time to do on your own,” Coran continued._ _

__Ariela leant back and frowned, crossing her arms on top of her chest too._ _

__“He had a nervous break down,” the man added, words coming out rapidly, and Ariela tsked. “I’ve checked the training deck and the library door’s logs and he has been working over night for almost two months now. There are nights I’m not sure he slept at all.” A worried and tired sigh left his lips. “I’m concerned about him, but I’m not sure how he would react if I faced him about it. He probably would be more open to discuss it with you.”_ _

__Ariela rubbed her face._ _

__“I knew he was lying to me when I did the checking, and I should have guessed that he felt inferior. No one even acknowledges him or at least treats him decently except from you and Hunk,” she muttered through her teeth, the words feeling a little bit venomous. She jumped off of the counter in favour of pacing in front of it, eyes on the floor._ _

__“I noticed that too. I know that princess Allura has mixed feelings about Lance because of his constant flirting. She has a rough story with wooers, you see, part of being a princess and having almost everyone trying to get to your crown.” Ariela grumbled something unintelligible. “I’m not saying that justifies what she does,” he quickly added, and the woman shot him a side smile._ _

__“I know, it’s just… It angers me,” she admitted, turning to look at him. “I really appreciate you telling me and worrying about him, Coran. I don’t really know you, but you’re a great man,” she said then, smiling honestly._ _

__“Lance reminds me of my best friend, so I guess my motives aren’t entirely selfless, but I still almost love him like a son for who he is, not who he reminds me of. He is also a great person, and I hate to see him so distressed.”_ _

__They shared a look that left it clear how much they both cared for Lance and, with a nod, Coran wished her a good night and left._ _

# . . .

__Pidge hated feeling like crap for three consecutive days a month, but that was the price to pay for not having a dick, and she was kind of glad she didn’t have one as she watched Hunk and Lance throw food goo at each other. Keith and Shiro kind of passed, but there would always be a moment where they would do some flamboyantly stupid thing to remind Pidge that boys sucked._ _

__And yes, maybe it was her fault for staying up so late to try put the last ideas for her project together, and maybe it was her fault because she hadn’t showered the day before, and maybe it was her fault because she had a serious case of dehydration and the consequential nuisances that came with it for someone on their period. But still, it was the guys fault for being so fucking obnoxious and _murderable_ during the mornings._ _

__“Hey, Pidge, you look pale,” Shiro noticed when they were already starting to stand up to go back to the training deck, having decided they had had a long enough break, after stopping when Hunk’s stomach roared and Lance almost fainted from exhaustion._ _

__“I just don’t feel well. I think I might hit the healing pods for a few minutes, just to see if it helps me,” she said, standing up with a hand over her belly, whimpering hopelessly when Shiro stopped her with a hand on her shoulder._ _

__“Pidge, if you’re feeling unwell you should tell us. You don’t have to force yourself through training,” Shiro insisted._ _

__“It’s okay, Shiro. Just mild pain.”_ _

__“Yeah, Shiro. She’s alright,” Lance said, smiling softly and putting a hand on Pidge’s shoulder, but he did it in a comforting and empathetic way. When the girl turned to him frowning, he winked her an eye, as if saying _I know what this is_ ; he had three sisters after all._ _

__“No, Lance. You can’t encourage her to just train when she’s not feeling well! What if she’s sick or overworking herself? We should take you to the infirmary,” Shiro insisted, already tugging her towards the door, but Pidge tiredly rolled her eyes and shoved his hand out of her shoulder._ _

__“Unless there are painkillers specific enough to save me from period cramps but not drug me I don’t think the ALIEN infirmary will help,” she calmly said, although she could feel the same heat that was spreading through Shiro’s face spread through hers._ _

__“Tried to warn you, golden boy,” Lance mocked him, before patting Pidge in the back. “Let’s go looking for Allura and Ariela. Ariela might have something, her cramps are nasty, and maybe Alteans have periods too,” he said._ _

__“Are you sure? I don’t want to bother them,” Pidge replied with a really low voice. Pidge Gunderson (or Katie Holt, suit yourself), the green gremlin that possessed no shame whatsoever, felt embarrassed about talking with someone about her period. She was just so cute._ _

__Lance was about to answer when Allura’s and Ariela’s heads popped into the kitchen, both soaked in sweat and panting._ _

__“The panther said you needed me,” she said, frowning and looking down at her own words._ _

__As an answer to everyone’s surprise, Green and Blue said at the same time to their respective paladins _I might have given her the call so you didn’t have to go yourselves_._ _

__“Well, the panther was surprisingly helpful because we, indeed need you,” Lance said, and patted Pidge on the back one more time._ _

__“I was wondering-” she looked down and started fidgeting with her fingers- “If you had any pain killers for cramps, by any chance.” Her voice became lower and lower as she talked, making Ariela actually slightly lean forwards to listen._ _

__“Oh, of course! My cramps are horrible, so I make sure I always carry at least a box with me,” Ariela answered with a warm smile. “They’re in my bedroom.” Pidge hurried to walk to her side._ _

__“When you’re done go to the common room. I guess we should have the meeting now that we’re all together,” Allura said. Ariela gave her a nod, turning to the girl when she spoke._ _

__“What do your cramps feel like?” Pidge asked her, and Ariela smiled brightly at the question._ _

__“As if a velociraptor was trying to claw its way out of my uterus. Yours?”_ _

__“They feel as if an elephant was stomping on my ovaries.”_ _

__“Neat.”_ _

__And with that they were gone. Allura eyed the paladins that were sitting down with a quirked eyebrow, making them stand up quickly and follow her out of the kitchen and through hallways, towards the common room._ _

__“Was I hallucinating or Ariela just said that her cramps felt like a dinosaur trying to claw her way out of her uterus and then said that Pidge’s cramps were neat?” Hunk asked after a small silence, only filled with the sound of their steps. He looked distressed™._ _

__“Apparently, girls bond a lot over periods,” Shiro commented, looking back at the three younger paladins from over his shoulder._ _

__“What are periods?” Allura asked, tilting her head to a side. Lance recognized that gesture from Hunk, and noticed that she didn’t use to do it before._ _

__“Um… It’s a complicated thing,” Keith said, blushing._ _

__“Every month the uterus prepares to have a baby, and when there’s no baby, it angstly tears all the preparations it made and shoves them down. It’s painful and there’s a lot of blood,” Lance summed up. Allura frowned, making a face of disgust and incomprehension._ _

__“Their bodies get ready to be pregnant every month? Without them telling them so? That sucks!” she exclaimed as they reached the common room, almost running to slump down on a sofa gracefully, despite being dressed in a training outfit and sweating. “That sounds exhausting.”_ _

__“It is. My girlfriend wouldn’t move from the bed if it was a weekend,” Shiro said, and Keith made a face that looked like he was gagging._ _

__“My sister would watch Friends and cry while eating mint ice-cream,” Hunk added._ _

__“Flynn just goes out running for hours because she would punch someone if she doesn’t, and Ariela eats everything that contains chocolate in the house and watches conspiracy videos under fifty blankets,” Lance said with a smile._ _

__“What?” Allura asked, all puzzled._ _

__“Yeah, it’s a pretty awful thing. This one girl at my school ripped her appendix during a test but didn’t say anything. When the teacher asked her why she didn’t tell him she was feeling unwell, she said she had had worse cramps,” Keith chimed it, making them all frown in fear._ _

__“THAT GIRL RIPPED AN ORGAN! AND SHE SAID SHE HAD HAD WORSE?” Hunk would bet one hundred dollars to Allura having paled when she heard that. “Now I know why they chose you… Well, at least the girls,” she said, sweeping her last words away with a dismissive gesture of her hand. Shiro looked at her with narrowed eyes, and she seemed to catch herself. “And you survived one year as a Galra prisoner.”_ _

__Pidge and Ariela crossed the door, and she turned towards them. “You have to go through that _every_ month?” she asked, all scandalized. The two female humans shrugged, as Pidge popped a pill out of a tablet and went to fetch a glass of water to swallow it down._ _

__“Do you think I could keep one of those? Coran and I might be ably to copy them, so that you don’t run out?” Hunk asked, and Ariela nodded, giving him two pills._ _

__Corn appeared through the door of the common room a minute later or so, as Pidge was gulping down a good chug of water to push the huge pill down her throat and the rest settled down in the sofas, Lance and Ariela quick to curl around each other with a blanket which no one knew where they had gotten it from._ _

__“Okay, we’re all here,” Allura exclaimed, clapping her hands awkwardly, before slowly sitting down in the middle of the circle that the crew had formed. “So, we all know that we are much weaker than Zarkon’s empire, and that we don’t have a plan… Any ideas?” she asked, looking around._ _

__Pidge slowly rose her hand when she noticed that nobody wanted to start._ _

__“I think we should spot abandoned colonies and war bases and look for any abandoned data or technology that might be useful, instead of having to infiltrate into dangerous bases without really knowing what we’re looking for,” she proposed, and Allura smiled._ _

__“Yes! It would help us get used to the layout of their buildings in case we ever needed to escape from actual danger, we would know what to expect. The problem with the info is the language though… Our text translator is not the best...” Allura murmured the last part._ _

__“Oh, don’t worry. I’ve been improving it,” Pidge shrugged off, before laying back in her sofa, completely missing Allura’s surprised looks._ _

__Another silence followed, until Lance cleared his throat, calling all attention to him._ _

__“If you are not going to say something serious...” Keith started, but Ariela shushed him, to everyone’s surprise._ _

__“He hasn’t even opened his mouth yet. You might want to chill a little bit,” she told him, words clearly held back and calculated, letting him know how she would have snapped if there were no consequences, but her harsh eyes quickly sweetened when Lance slid an arm through her shoulders and pulled her closer._ _

__“I was thinking that we should keep on the down low for a while, and focus on mapping out planets that are still free from Galra control and seek alliances with them. Even if they can’t come and fight with us, they can help other planets defend themselves, or provide us with food, Intel, materials...” he trailed off. He had been looking at Allura the whole time, but when she kept silent his eyes fell to his left hand, playing with the hem of his t-shirt._ _

__“Actually, that’s a marvellous idea,” Coran said cheerfully, gently nudging the princess on the side, almost as if she needed a queue to speak._ _

__“It really is, Lance. I’m…, kind of embarrassed I didn’t come up with it myself,” she said, tucking a rebel lock of hair behind her ear. “I guess I was too focused on the violent side of the war,” she admitted._ _

__“Thank you,” Lance smiled at them for the compliment, and Ariela squeezed his hand, making him turn and catch her eyes gleaming with pride._ _

__“If we actually do that, we could stablish an allies network, giving them contact with our other allies so they could also exchange resources between themselves and even offer housing to those who lost their planet, or work as recruiting site for independent rebels,” Hunk added, exitedly leaning forward._ _

__Shiro chuckled._ _

__“Jesus, guys. Leave some of the good ideas for the leader, okay? I need to look good,” he joked, but it only made Hunk more excited, seeing him joking around with them a little bit. The chuckles rose quickly between them, and died a little bit hard._ _

__The new silence broke with Allura sighing contently, tucking the same lock of hair behind her ear again._ _

__“I thought this wasn’t going to go so well for the first time we did it,” she confessed, making Coran frown._ _

__“It did go pretty well.”_ _

__“Yeah, why hadn’t we done this before?” Shiro asked, and now Allura looked guiltily towards the floor, fists clenching on her lap._ _

__“I admit that it had never crossed my mind the fact that you are actually part of this too. I kept seeing you as…, tools,” she admitted with a pained sigh. “But lately I’ve realized how very real and complex you are, and how you are my equals, not my servants. Despite me being the one to think the plans, you should still get a saying on this. After all, it’s you who are putting their lives directly at stake all the time. Not me.”_ _

__Hunk was the first one to come out of the offended/surprised haze that the princess’ confession had left the five former paladins in, and he immediately smiled at her._ _

__“It’s okay princess. You did well.”_ _

# . . .

__It was hard enough to deal with your own anger. Now, imagine having to deal with a wild bloodthirsty animal’s too. Ariela had a really good reason to be just kicking that punching bag to dust, because two weeks had gone by since she had turned into the paladin of the panther, and no progress had been made, she would dare to say they had gone backwards. And, despite them hating each other, the more time they spent together, the more this strange bond that kept them connected became powerful. The panther’s being was like this unstoppable fountain of… _existance_ that was difficult to put apart from hers. Which anger was whose? Who had had the sudden desire to sink teeth into tender flesh? Who had laughed when Allura tripped with her own feet or accidentally hit herself in the forehead with her staff? It was really hard to know._ _

__The thing is that now she was twice as anger, anger squared, and she couldn’t take it out on the panther itself so there she was, knuckles split open and bleeding because she had been there for three hours now, hitting the thing with her bare hand._ _

__She roundhouse kicked the punching bag and noticed a yellow spot on the side while turning, so the second she was on the ground, her eyes searched that thing that hadn’t been there before, only to find an anxious looking Hunk._ _

__“Hey,” he said, rubbing at his neck._ _

__A few moments of silence followed, where Ariela tried to remember where she was and which language she had to speak in, before she awkwardly raised her left hand._ _

__“Hey,” she replied._ _

__More awkward silence._ _

__“So...” Hunk started, balancing on the balls of his feet. “Allura said you had a bad day with the panther, huh?” Ariela chuckled._ _

__“Don’t even mention it,” she huffed out, as she dropped to pick up the towel laying on the floor. Hunk let out a choked breath, and she looked at him with worried eyes. “I meant it on the…, the friendly manner?”_ _

__Hunk stopped moving al together, not even breathing, and then he relaxed._ _

__“Oh.”_ _

__Yeah, you should definitely never leave two people with social anxiety together and alone._ _

__“Were you looking for me for something in particular?” she asked. Hunk’s eyebrows rose before he clapped his hands together and looked to the ceiling._ _

__“Yeah, right. You skipped dinner, so I was wondering if you were hungry. I saved you some,” he answered, pointing at the door, feeling himself relax as Ariela slightly dropped her head to the side with a smile._ _

__“Aww, that’s so cute,” she said, fingers starting to twist and untwist the towel. “I’m sorry I didn’t have dinner with you… I just lost track of time,” she said, looking at the floor._ _

__“Don’t worry, it’s okay. It’s actually pretty normal for us to either skip dinner or dine alone,” he said, motioning her to follow him with a gesture of his head, and she immediately did. He saw how she turned with her mouth open to ask something, but then didn't. “And yes, before you ask, Lance has skipped a few meals before you got here.”_ _

__“I knew that asshole was lying to me,” she said with too much passion. They walked in, somehow, a comfortable silence for a while. “Thanks for telling me.”_ _

__“You care about Lance, I care about Lance. We should stick together to care for him, maybe even create a club,” Hunk joked, making her laugh._ _

__“I don’t really know you, Hunk, but you seem the kind of person that has a protection club for everyone they merely like,” she said, and Hunk’s ears got red._ _

__“Yeah, about that...”_ _

# . . .

__Pidge woke up to an alarm blaring, her laptop falling from her knees, more cramps and an aching neck._ _

__“FUCK YOU!” she yelled at the ceiling as she quickly got up, already running toward the door out of the room where she had decided to install _her cave_._ _

__Once in the hallway she could hear more yelling; a confused Ariela asking what was going on, a cranky Lance telling her to shut up, Shiro telling them to move it and Keith just cursing out loud._ _

__“We need you on the deck, paladins!” Allura announced through the comms, making Pidge huff because how would they know if she didn’t tell them right?_ _

__By the time they all reached the control deck, the five needed paladins had more or less woken up, and Ariela was still clinging to Lance’s shirt, probably drooling on his shoulder. She only woke up when Allura palmed her on the back, opening her mouth to speak._ _

__“Paladins, a planet is being attacked, and we’re nearby. Suit up and go. Ariela will stay with Coran and I to help us run the control deck,” the princess told them, pushing Hunk towards the tubes that would take them directly to their lions hangar._ _

__Pidge started walking towards her own tube without even thinking it twice, but a hand on her wrist stopped her._ _

__“Wait,” Keith said, making them all turn. “I thought we had said we’d play it cool, not jump into action all of the time.”_ _

__“Yes, we said that, but we didn’t search this, it’s just happening,” Lance almost whispered, as if he wanted to keep the conversation private, fearing Keith’s comment would reach the others._ _

__“Yeah, Keith, he’s right. We’re not just gonna leave them alone when we could help,” Hunk said, giving a step closer. Pidge yanked her hand away from Keith’s grip, trying to make the statement that she was with her friends._ _

__“The thing is that I don’t think we can actually help,” he said, sounding breathless. Ariela frowned at him._ _

__“What?”_ _

__“When we were practising two days ago we could barely form Voltron, and we weren’t able to hold it together for more than five minutes, remember? Everyone’s head was somewhere else. If we can’t form Voltron, how do you expect to help?” he asked, looking around for an answer._ _

__Shiro’s face slowly fell to the floor. Keith was right. It had been his fault; he had been too tired to focus on anything else but the shadows he swore would creep up on him while he was focusing on the screen in front of him. Even the crappy bonding exercises with the team were difficult for him nowadays._ _

__“We don’t need to form Voltron every time,” Lance quickly struck back._ _

__“How big is the Galra troop?” Keith asked, turning to Allura and Coran, who just stared back in return. “Would we be able to defeat them without forming Voltron?”._ _

__Coran looked at the floor._ _

__“It’s pretty big. You wouldn’t be able to do it without Voltron,” he sighed out. Allura looked at him as if he had betrayed her._ _

__“See? We should stay,” Keith continued, pointing at the two aliens with an open hand. Lance frowned and took a step forward._ _

__“No. We should go out there and at least try to save them. The worst case we end up returning without a win,” he stated, voice getting a little bit higher every word, denoting that he was getting mad._ _

__“No, Lance. Worst case one of us dies. It’s already happened more times than I like,” Keith replied, taking a step forward too._ _

__“Keith is right, Lance, we’re not in the right state to fight yet,” Shiro butted in, making the blue paladin gape at him with something similar to outrage. He then turned to his friends, and Pidge took in a sharp breath._ _

__“I’m sorry, Lance, but he is actually right,” Hunk admitted lowly._ _

___Oh, no. I see where this is going_ Gold sighed into his mind._ _

___You might want to ease things a little bit, mine. Blue and Red are fighting_._ _

___Oh, yes_ the panther chuckled. _This is going to get good_._ _

__“No! He’s not right! What happened, guys? You were willing to do this before he stepped in our tails!”_ _

__“What are you saying?” Keith asked, getting closer._ _

__“Guys,” Ariela said simply, slowly getting closer to the two paladins. Tension was rising, and it was fast._ _

__“I’m saying that they don’t always have to do what you say, it’s not like you’re the leader of the team, even if you like acting like it,” Lance spat out of gritted teeth._ _

__“Do you have a problem with me, McClain?” Keith asked, chest puffing out and Ariela rolled her eyes because this was just ridiculous. _Testosterone_._ _

__“Can’t keep count, actually,” Lance hissed, finally getting into Keith’s space, chests actually bumping with an awkward sound._ _

__“Get off of me before I make you.”_ _

__“What? Am I making you uncomfortable?” Lance asked, shoving Keith backwards._ _

__“Okay, Lance, that’s enough,” Ariela stated, reassuming her approach towards them._ _

__“Don’t fucking push me, man,” Keith complained, shoving Lance at his chest, hard. The blue paladin stumbled backwards a few steps, looked up really angry, and launched himself at the red paladin, fists in the air. There was a smacking sound and a groan of pain, as Keith covered his right eye with his hand, before jumping at Lance too._ _

__There were screams, yelps, groans and grunts, the two teens hitting and kicking as Ariela and Hunk tried to break the fight apart, as Pidge screamed at them to stop and Shiro just…, stood there, dissociating a little bit. Lance got to headbut Keith on the nose, making it bleed, and had painted his sking with red lines all along his arms and neck. Keith, in return, had given Lance a bloody lip and a few strikes on the head. Pissed, Lance punched him on the throat, cutting off his breathing. Keith started gasping for air, eyes wild looking at Lance and making Hunk actually back up in fear, before he leaped at Lance and made him go down with a pained sound._ _

__“STOP!” Hunk screamed, as Keith pinned Lance to the ground and started choking him while the other boy kicked under him, nails digging on his face's skin again as he tried to get the other paladin to let him go. Ariela ran to them, trying to push Keith off, and actually kicking him on the back, but the man only groaned, a deep spund that actually opened the mouth of her stomach in fear. Lance was gasping with desperation now, weakly hitting at Keith's chest._ _

__“LET HIM GO!” Ariela yelled, slapping Keith's neck hard. He actually turned to her and snarled like a fucking animal, and Ariela responded like a fucking animal too, droping to the floor and sinking her teeth into Keith's arm while yanking at his hair. She was scared that not even that was going to make him let Lance go, but by the time she was tasting blood on her mouth, Keith growled again and let Lance's neck, who took in a desperate breath and scrambled away, to push at Ariela and send her sliding through the floor. He was going to jump to her but Shiro grabbed him by the back of his t-shirt and yanked him back. Apparently, seeing their leader made Keith snap back to reality and realise what he had just done, because his whole stance deflated and his lost their feral energy._ _

__“I’m going to kill you!” Lance muttered as he got up, ready to get the red paladin again, but Ariela grabbed him by the hair and yanked him back just like Shiro had done._ _

__“YOU!” she started, voice dripping anger. Lance's eyes opened wide with surprise and then fear. “WALK IT OFF!” she finished, pointing at the door, and after a few seconds of communicating through looks, he turned around and practically ran away, huffing curses under his breath._ _

__“You just let him off the hook like that?” Keith asked half-heartedly, his voice emotionless. He felt like a ragdooll, devoid of energy. On the other hand, Ariela was only starting to fire up, because she turned to him and grabbed him by the t-shirt, completely ignoring Shiro's command to let him go._ _

__“You are no saint either. Ever since I got on this ship you’ve been nothing but mean and condescending to Lance, so it was about time he snapped at your trashy attitude,” she told him through gritted teeth._ _

__“Ariela." Shiro's voice was a warning on its own, but the woman ignored him again. She was breathing fast and her teet were showing, stained with Keith's blood. She was openly challenging him, and he could either submit or fight back, and a stupid part of his brain hated the former option._ _

__“What happened? Did he need his girlfriend to defend him? Is he that weak?” Keith spat out, and suddenly Ariela’s hand wasn’t gripping his t-shirt but his neck, nails digging into his skin._ _

__“I just want you to know I’ve threatened people of death for less,” she hissed, before pushing him away and letting go. And Keith wanted to laugh it off, be really did… But the sight of the woman baring her teeth at him with his own blood tainting them had kind of thrown him off._ _


	5. Tell me your secrets and ask me your questions. Oh, let's go back to the start

Everything spun around him, and his vision was tunneling. Adrenaline and sleep deprivation and almost being chocked to unconsciousness was a weird mix that he didn't want to try ever again.

It wasn't his fault anyways; if Keith hadn't acted like a major jackass like he always did they wouldn't have fought, but no, he had to boss everyone around, he had to step in and say something... And of course, every time Keith spoke, everyone listened to him. That lucky bastard.

_Lance, please stop before you hurt yourself_ Blue insisted softly in his head when he smashed his fist against a wall, pain surging up his hand. She always spoke to him in a voice that was so like his mother's when he was frustrated, and it always worked, but right now he couldn't focus on anything excepting his own anger and exhaustion. He wanted to beat Keith up, but he also wanted to curl up with Ariela and cry on her shoulder until he fell asleep. 

“Fucking Keith… _Bobo de mierda_ ,” he murmured, walking furiously towards… somewhere, until his legs gave out under him and he fell to the floor, hitting his right cheek against it.

_Lance, please, calm down_ Blue insisted, but she was slowly losing the calmness in her voice.

Lance made a choked noise when he realized he suddenly couldn’t breathe.

“LANCE!” someone screamed behind him, but he could barely hear them over the buzzing of his ears and the noises he was making. He couldn’t keep quiet, whining, gasping and sobbing non-stop. That small part that was still rational at the very end of his brain wanted to dig its own grave and die from embarrassment, but he couldn’t help it, he was not on control of himself anymore.

And then he felt a hand on his nape.

“Help me get him to his room,” a familiar voice said.

“Oh my God, Lance?” 

“He’s okay, Shiro. _He’ll be okay_.”

“What’s wrong with him?!”

Lance’s vision was spotting, and although air was reaching his lungs, his blood wasn’t picking up any oxygen. He immediately clung to something when someone picked him up, an almost familiar warmth and indescriptable scent wrapping him. He tried to tell them that he couldn't breathe, that his neck was burning.

“It’s okay, baby, it’s okay,” another voice was saying as they ran through hallways. “You’re actually okay, you just have to clear your mind. Breathe with me, _si_?" A door swished open and then he was let down in a bed, the person that had been talking to him quickly crawling up to hug him tightly, placing his head on the crook of their neck and lightly scratching his scalp as they sang a lullaby. Lance clinged to them as soon as he could reach, needing to grasp something or he would fall even deeper.

“What’s going on?”

“Shouldn’t we take him to a healing pod?”

“Unless healing pods help with panic attacks, then I don’t think so, Keith.”

“ _Arrorro mi niño, arrorro mi sol. Arrorro pedazo de mi corazón _”.__

__“I don’t understand, why did he get like this?”_ _

__“Maybe because Keith acted like an asshole, or maybe because he amost FUCKING CHOKED HIM!”_ _

__“ _Este nene lindo, se quiere dormir, y el pícaro sueño no quiere venir_ ”_ _

__“Ariela?” Lance managed to rasp out, still gasping for air a little bit. His vision was blurry, although it might be because of some tears now, but he could make out the silhouette of the woman._ _

__“Yes, darling?” she asked, hugging him closer._ _

__“Make them go,” he told her, eyes digging in who he thought was Keith, before hiding his face on the crook of her neck again. This scent actually was familiar, just like her warmth and the shape of her body. Now that he could slowly take it in, it was beginning to calm him._ _

__“You already heard him. All of you, out. Now,” she said in her commanding voice, and a few seconds later the door swished closed, leaving them in silence only filled by Lance’s slowly normalizing breathing._ _

__“ _Este nene lindo, que nació de noche, quiere que lo lleven a pasear en coche_ ,” she quickly began singing again._ _

__With the comfort that she brought him and all of the exhaustion he had piled up on his shoulders, he fell asleep almost immediately._ _

# . . .

__The common room was chaos, and Allura couldn't help but stare at Shiro, expecting him to do something. She didn't have the slightest idea of what to do, for never in her life had she seen such behavior in civilized species like humans were. This..., pouncing at each other and the brawl had been so animalistic that the princess had mistaken them for actual animals._ _

__"I ALREADY SAID I WAS SORRY!" Keith exclaimed yet again, trying to get the words to sink in Hunk, but Lance's best friend wasn't having it. Anger and a protective instinct he didn't feel often was coursing through his veins and feeding the fire on his chest. Plus, now that he saw Keith all banged up and pressing a cotton ball to his nose, he didn't look that intimidating._ _

__"YOU PUNCHED HIM AND THEN CHOKED HIM, KEITH! TELL ME IN WHICH UNIVERSE BEING FUCKING SORRY EXCUSES YOU FROM THAT!" the yellow paladin replied, jabbing his index finger in Keith's chest. "We know you like being edgy, a lone wolf, etcetera, but this was just too much. Do you really think you can get away with anything?"_ _

__"He jumped at me first!" Keith's voice climbed a pitch higher every time he had to defend himself, and it was giving Allura a headache. "I reacted like that! I couldn't think straight!"_ _

__"THAT'S ENOUGH!" Shiro screamed, stepping in between the two paladins. "Go to separate corners of the room, or go to your bedrooms, I don't care. If you don't stop fighting I'll actually lock you out," he added, words barely understandable as he was chewing them._ _

__Okay, Allura wanted Shiro to step in, but this was a little bit..., not useful at all. Even Pidge seemed scared, curled up in a ball on one of the couches and clutching one of the multiple pillows Lance had stolen from free bedrooms and brought there for his matutine nap._ _

__"Yelling will get us nowhere, Shiro. The best we can do is calm down and wait for Lance and Ariela to come," Coran said, voice emotionless, as he put a hand on the man's shoulder as a physical way to say _Calm the fuck down or this won't end well_._ _

__As if Coran's words had been her queue, the door swished open and Ariela stepped in looking tired and ready to kill. Both of her shoulders were wet with Lance's tears and there were also a few drops of Keith's blood staining the pink sleeping shirt. The red paladin side-eyed her as he dropped down in one of the couches, crossing his arms on top of his chest and deciding to ignore her._ _

__"Where's Lance?" Pidge asked once the woman had sat down, legs crossed and arms resting on the back of the sofa. She looked as if she was actively challenging Keith._ _

__"Lance is in his bedroom," she answered, calmly, already noticing how a few of the crew members began to look confused._ _

__"He isn't coming? We were going to discuss what the hell just happened," Shiro asked, sitting down too._ _

__"He isn't coming because he is too busy being unconscious. Turns out that sleeping a maximum of four hours per night, fighting with a teammate, being chocked, and then having a panic attack is really taxing for a teen," the woman answered with irony, smiling crookedly._ _

__"Sleeping four hours a night? But he's always sleeping in! Hunk has to go wake him every morning," Allura said._ _

__"Oh, yeah. About that..." Coran started, walking towards the couch where Ariela was sitting and standing straight next to her. "Lance has been training on his own every night for a month and a half now," the man told them, and a long silence fell._ _

__"What?" Hunk finally asked._ _

__"He felt useless next to all of you, so he started training at night to improve and be up to your level," Ariela answered, sighing. "He's also been learning Altean, like, reading Altean," she added, and Allura's eyes shot open._ _

__"Yes. He can already comprehend complex texts. As to the training, he’s been straining himself a lot. I once found him injured and he was so exhausted he hadn't even noticed," Coran continued._ _

__"You said he feels useless?" Hunk asked._ _

__"Well, can you really blame him? You guys never take him as part of the team, his opinion doesn't matter, and you're always snapping at him." Ariela rubbed her face. "He's been trying to get you to acknowledge him ever since I've come, but all he gets is you guys in a bad mood," she finished, not looking at anyone in particular._ _

__"It's true," Pidge said (to everyone's surprise). "I know that we're all under a lot of pressure and stress, but Lance seems to be the one that we take it out on the most."_ _

__"He... His behavior is really taxing. He's always so filled with energy and..., it is as if he sucked it from us," Allura tried to defend them._ _

__"He doesn't take anything seriously either. We're fighting a war and it all seems like a joke to him, so yeah, maybe he deserves a little bit of yelling," Keith butted in, and Shiro smacked him in the arm at the last part, noticing how Ariela's face contorted in fury again._ _

__"It is fascinating the way you talk about him as if you knew him. Well, or at least tried to know him," the woman hissed, and Hunk made a gesture that caught her attention and made her realize that losing it wasn't the way to fix this, because she took in a deep breath to steady herself._ _

__"Lance is a special person," Coran said, to fill the silence._ _

__"He is a middle child of seven siblings, so yes, he requires a little bit more attention that other people, but that's it. The only thing he really needs is for you to let him know that you see him, that you at least care! Judging by the way you barely talk about him it's almost as if he didn't exist."_ _

__"We don't..." Shiro started._ _

__"The only times I've heard you directly address him have been when you were scolding him for anything or telling him how he's doing something wrong. It's never to congratulate him or help him," Ariela answered without missing a beat, and she immediately regretted it. The way Shiro's face suddenly lost light let her know that he was already sinking in guilt. Now that Hunk had told her how he was doing, it was noticeable in every small gesture._ _

__"But, we all know you'd never do it on purpose," Hunk jumped after her, jumping from his seat to land next to their leader and put a hand on his shoulder._ _

__"Yeah, I'm sorry I..., put it like that," she apologized. "And..., you probably didn’t realize, but Lance's jokes are never actually jokes, he's just trying to make things seem better for everyone. Usually he's the one most aware of how delicate a situation is."_ _

__"So he just jokes around to make us feel better and we just shoot him down all the time?" Pidge asked. Ariela nodded. "This is just great."_ _

__"Don't get me wrong, I know that you're all under a lot of stress, and Lance is as guilty as you are because he never spoke about anything with any of you. It's just that..., he tends to bottle everything up, and it is easier to talk it first with you. That and, he's not conscious right now but you are," the woman finished that statement with a nervous chuckle._ _

__"We should all talk to him, shouldn't we?" Allura asked._ _

__"It would be the best, yes," Coran nodded with solemn air._ _

__"I think that the real deal here that we should all talk about everything, at least everything we can talk about," Ariela started, rubbing her palms together. She seemed uncomfortable now. "I know that you don't know me, and it is totally my fault because I haven't made myself available to you either, but let me tell you... If you are going to be stuck with the same seven people until you either win a war or die, the best thing is to have the best relationship with them, and for that you have to trust them and talk about the things that bother you."_ _

___Is it me or did she directly look at you when she said that?_ Black asked her paladin, making him conclude that yes, Hunk had definitely talked with her without telling him. Great, now he had to clean up a mess. _Don't be mad, he is taking care of you better than yourself after all_ she added with her angry mum voice, and Shiro just ruffled on his seat._ _

__"Do you know what? Today has been a crazy day, and we weren't going to get much done anyways, so why don't we all take a break? No training, no studying no nothing, just... Relax and set things clear," Allura proposed. She took a deep breath and looked at Ariela. "Why don't you try to talk with the panther? The rest will think of what we will tell Lance when he wakes up."_ _

__"I'll go think in my room," Pidge announced before running off._ _

# . . .

__When Lance woke up, he didn't remember anything, not even his name or where he was. He only knew he would soon die of starvation and dehydration if he didn't make a trip to the kitchen. But then, slowly, memories started to come back._ _

___How are you feeling, baby?_ Blue asked with a soft voice, and that was when he remembered everything. Fighting with Keith, punching him, Keith choking him, Ariela being mad at him, and then breaking down crying and sobbing like a baby in front of the whole team. If they didn't think he was useless before, they would surely think that now._ _

__"Can I curl up here and die?" Lance asked Blue as he made himself a human ball and covered himself so that only his nose was not under the blanket._ _

___Get Zarkon's filthy hands away from me and then we'll negotiate your death_ Blue joked, and Lance closed his eyes to find himself sitting next to her at his house._ _

__He had discovered the way to alter the mindscape where they stopped being Lance and Blue and started being _them_ shortly after the wormhole incident. He had been more than happy to have one place that only he and Blue could have and share. Anyone could walk into her hangar, but no one could set foot into their minds._ _

__Also, Blue had... She appeared to him, he could see her this way, and she had taken a liking to appearing human when she was with him. A tall, muscled, black woman with the brightest smile ever, dressed in sport clothes and hair styled in long blue dreadlocks that Lance would braid when they were just hanging out. Right now, they were sitting in one of the couches of the living room facing the sunset painted by his mother. There was a music playing from the kitchen, probably some symphony that only Dominique could like._ _

__"You are an amazing warrior, Lance. I just wish you'd believe me," she told him, snaking an arm around his shoulders and resting her left hand on top of his knee, cuddling next to him. She quickly rested her head on his shoulder. "I know Keith doesn't mean to treat you like that. None of the paladins does. It's just..."_ _

__"They're really stressed and I'm stressing," he interrupted her._ _

__"They don't get you, darling." She caressed his cheek. "It's like the curse of the blue paladin; you and I will always understand the rest, that's our job after all, translating for them so that everyone can stay together. The question is who translates for us," she murmured, making Lance frown._ _

__"You lost me at the translation," he confessed, making Blue chuckle._ _

__"We understand everyone, right? In our own, incomplete way, but we do." The paladin nodded. "Well, we may understand everyone, but the rest doesn't, so we have to help them understand. But if we are the only ones who can understand the rest, who understands us?"_ _

__"Oh, yeah, I see where this is going," he murmured. "If we're the translators then we have to translate for ourselves."_ _

__"Nice job there," she purred, hugging him closer. "You need to talk to them, Lance. Apologize for being so hard to open yourself up to them and for punching Keith, of course. Only you can speak for yourself, and if you don't do it, things will end poorly."_ _

__"But what if I tell them what's going on and it is not such a big deal as I thought, and they hate me even more?" he asked, turning to face her. "They already think I'm a burden, I don't want them to _despise_ me," he added._ _

__"They don't think you are a burden and what you went through _is_ a big deal, baby. The only way to fix what others broke is talking about it, telling everyone how you feel. Especially Keith and Shiro."_ _

___Lance?__ _

__Lance's eyes shot open. He was not at his house anymore, Blue was not there, and he was not enjoying the warmth of his living room. He was curled up at his bed with Shiro and Hunk staring at him like they would stare at a mad man._ _

__"Who were you talking to, buddy?" Hunk asked him._ _

__"Emm..." he cleared his throat, noticing how raspy his voice was. "I was talking with Blue." He sat up, looking at them with still heavy eyelids. Shiro let out a soft oh, before looking at the still open door. “Actually… I wanted to talk to you too,” he added, kicking the covers away and looking at their leader._ _

__“Oh, no, no. You have to eat first, it’s almost four in the afternoon and you haven’t taken a bite,” Hunk insisted. “You can talk with Shiro after you’ve eaten.”_ _

# . . .

__The leather book crashed against the wall with an ugly splat and then fell to the floor as Pidge looked at it wanting blood… Or ink… Whatever it was books would bleed if they were alive._ _

__She had been working on this project for two months now, and she hadn't made a single improvement. Hunk's hypothesis of how the communication system worked had been quite helpful, but she needed facts, not beliefs._ _

__“Fucking Alteans and fucking translator that only works on audio,” she said, chewing her words as she went to pick up the book where she had been taking notes._ _

__The mice squeaked, and she turned to look at them. The four were in a cuddle pile in the middle of the bundle her sweater was on top of a desk. They had probably heard the commotion and decided to cheer on her, like they did every time Pidge lost it._ _

__“This is going to be harder than I thought, isn't it?” she asked no one in specific, but the mice decided to answer, suddenly walking lazily out of her sweater and going directly for a drawer in the desk she had settled down. “You want me to open it?”_ _

__Another squeak indicated her that yes, that was what they wanted, so she opened the drawer to find tons of blueprints. They seemed dusty, as if no one had used them even before the Castle was attacked, but they were in good condition._ _

__“Oh, now this is going somewhere,” she chuckled._ _

# . . .

___Humans are so complex_ was the panther's conclusion once Ariela finished telling it what had happened that morning between Lance and Keith. _I certainly recall the previous red and blue paladin being rather passionate about the other, and they did go at each other a lot but it wasn't in this way_._ _

__Ariela frowned, slowing down the rocking as she gripped her feet tighter. “In which way was it?”_ _

__The panther chucked, rolling into its back._ _

___Let's say it was really…, explicit__ _

__“Oh my God, the other paladins were fuck buddies?”_ _

___If you want to put it like that_ the panther said, purring as Ariela gasped. _I remember the red and blue lions talking about them all the time, they’d never shut up_. And after it said that, they both fell into a comfortable silence; Ariela sitting on her designated corner next to the cleaning tools and the panther lazily sprawled on the center of the hangar, probably beginning to drift off._ _

__It seemed to be in a good mood, so this was probably the best time to strike. Ariela cleared her throat and tried to steady her heartbeat, ignoring the anxiety that rose every time she had to start a vital conversation._ _

__“See?” she asked without prompting, making the panther twist to look at her. “We're bonding alright, you seem to like me enough to tell me stuff about your past… Why won't you let me pilot you?”_ _

__The panther rolled back to its feet and stood, walking slowly and menacingly towards her with a threatening growl coming from its mouth, but Ariela refused to move or even blink._ _

___I was not made to be piloted. The robot where I was trapped was made to be piloted. I don't have to obey you. You can think that we're friends all you want, but I'll still hate you because I'm here instead of home.__ _

__“Listen-” she took a deep breath “- I don't know how your life was before the robot or how they got you in there, but the thing is that I don't care.”_ _

__The panther quirked its head. _What did you just say?__ _

__“I don't care about your angsty past, just like you don't care about mine. All I care about is being able to help my family and friends, to protect them,” Ariela explained herself, slowly raising to her feet. “I will be here every second until you finally stop being an ass and finally fight the war you were meant to fight.”_ _

___You can stay here forever and rot with me.__ _

__“You rather have that instead of going out and fight? Sit here by yourself instead of just being a part of something and move? Because that's pathetic,” she exclaimed, voice climbing higher but getting drowned at the end by the panther's roar._ _

___MY OLD LIFE WAS RIPPED FROM ME BECAUSE SOMEONE ELSE'S MISTAKE!__ _

__“THEN STOP SULKING AND LIVE THIS NEW LIFE INSTEAD!”_ _

__They were face to face now, Ariela's nose almost touching the metal snout in front of her and the growl that before was loud now was deafening._ _

___Get out_._ _

__She took in a breath and balled her fists. “I won’t. Not until you at least give me a reasonable motive to not let me pilot you. You let the previous paladin!” she screamed._ _

__And that’s when she felt it; in that part at the back of her brain where she and the panther were connected, she felt something dark and mean slither in, just in time as the panther sat down, its back facing Ariela._ _

___I cared enough about your angsty past to check your memories. You are not worthy of me, human. My previous paladin was nothing like you; she wouldn’t have ran away screaming in any of the occasions you did. You are pitiful_ it started, and although Ariela wasn’t exactly sure what it was referring to, she had her suspicions. Those suspicious made her stomach suddenly drop to make her feel nauseous._ _

__“Stop,” she whispered._ _

___Your life is pathetic. Rejected by your own clan? Unable to help those who took you in when they shouldn’t have because they knew you were broken and useless? In all the chances you were given, you took the wrong path.__ _

__“Stop talking.”_ _

___I don’t know why she thinks we’re compatible, and I don’t really care, because I have nothing left in this miserable existence to fight for except my dignity, and I certainly will not bet it on letting some weak and idiotic human who knows nothing about fighting pilot me.__ _

__“Ariela, are you okay?”_ _

__The woman turned around to find princess Allura trotting towards her, worry showing on her face. She had come in looking for Ariela and found her standing totally tense, hyperventilating and completely white._ _

__“Away,” was all she managed to say, losing her balance when Allura grabbed her by the shoulder and stumbling to the side. “I want… Away,” she sobbed._ _

__“What? What happened?” the princess asked, starting to become desperate as the paladin failed to give her answers. “Can you walk?” Instead of answering, Ariela fell to the floor when her knees gave out under her body. The woman grabbed a fistful of her hair and started pulling as she sobbed. “Oh, dear. You’re definitely awful,” Allura murmured, not quite knowing what to do except taking her away, so she just…, picked her up and started running away from the hangar, not quite sure of where to go._ _

# . . .

__Lance had been surprisingly quiet during his late lunch, barely aware of the piercing looks both Hunk and Shiro were giving him; his mind was running wild, trying to figure out the best way to apologize to Shiro for having snapped at Keith that way, although that small part of himself that didn't hate Lance as much as the rest of him did kept repeating that Shiro looked more worried about his well being than mad about what he had done._ _

__"Thanks for saving me a plate, Hunk," the blue paladin thanked as he set the cutlery down. The dish didn't have even a tiny crumb left, and he downed his third glass of water after saying those words. He definitely felt a little bit better now._ _

__"Don't thank me, Lance. It's the least I could do," Hunk told him with a warm smile. "Well, I'll leave you alone so you can talk." And with that he left the kitchen._ _

__Shiro had sat down on one of the counters and watched him eat in silence the whole time, arms crossed on top of his chest and quite tense, but now that they were alone he gave the whole room a final scan before relaxing his shoulders, joining his hands on his lap and biting his cheek as he thought of what he should say._ _

__"I wanted to apologize for my behaviour this morning. It wasn't okay to snap at Keith like that," Lance blurted out, eyes nailing on the table in front of him to avoid Shiro's probably-scowl._ _

__He heard a long sigh, a tired one, and then a chair was being pulled next to him for Shiro to sit down facing him. Lance slowly turned his face towards their leader, discovering that he didn't look angry, but... Was that guilt?_ _

__"Ariela was really angry when she came back from your room," the man started. "And she called us out on a few things that, now that we look at it, she was completely right about."_ _

__Lance felt the blood drain from his face. "I'm so sorry she did that. Please tell me she wasn't rude," he pleaded, and Shiro seemed to not know whether to laugh or cry._ _

__"Don't worry, Lance. Even if she had been rude I wouldn't be mad at _you_ for what she did." Lance shrugged._ _

__"Only the aliens seem to like having her around, so I just thought that you'd be mad at me for bringing her here, on top of the fact that she can’t even pilot the panther."_ _

__"I'm not mad, so stop apologizing and listen to me for a few minutes, okay?" Shiro told him, and it surprised him, but he nodded and willed his mouth shut. "The thing is that she called us out on our behavior, how shitty we were being to you. And she was totally right, we've been massive assholes."_ _

__There was a pause._ _

__"Maybe a little bit,” Lance murmured._ _

__Shiro threw him a look, but didn't argue with that. "The thing is that now we're aware of that, so we will change the way we act with you, but I still believe there's more to this problem." He leaned in after that, making Lance feel as if he was being interrogated._ _

__"There's more?" he asked with tiny voice, and Shiro nodded slowly._ _

__"Hmh. We've been assholes to you, but I think that this problem kind of existed before we even got ourselves into this universal-war thing." Lance bit his lip and Shiro knew he had struck the nail on the head. "Would you like talking about it with me?" he asked, and the blue paladin swallowed thickly._ _

__"I don’t know, Shiro. It's not important," he said, trying to shrug off the subject. He hadn't talked about this with anyone, not even Ariela. The only one that new something had happened was Hunk, only because he had witnessed Lance arriving to their dorm utterly destroyed._ _

__"If it's bothering you, then it is important," Shiro deadpanned._ _

__"Promise you won't get mad?"_ _

__"I promise."_ _

__"Okay." Lance took in a deep breath, held it in for a few seconds, and then let it out, counting on his head. "Well, you are familiar with how you enter the Garrison, right?" he asked Shiro with a laugh._ _

__"You take internet courses and sit exams during your high school senior year before entering. Yes, I'm familiar with it," he said calmly, crossing his legs and leaning back for a long story._ _

__"Yeah, well... I was awful at those. I'm not good at remembering specific stuff, I can only go with concepts or explanations, and half of the combat pilot protocol is unnecessarily hard slang and codes. I did good enough on the simulator every time we went once a month, and asked good questions at the seminars, but the tests... Man, I was awful."_ _

__Shiro's head shot up as if someone had hit him in the back._ _

__"I remember! I gave a seminar you were at once," he exclaimed. "One of your sisters had took you and was playing with her cellphone so Garrison called her out and she just left," he said, suddenly recalling the whole situation. Man, Lance had changed a lot in those two years that had gone by._ _

__"Yeah, that was Ariela with long hair," Lance commented. "No one else wanted to travel all the way to Arizona and she was on vacation, so she took me." Lance smiled, remembering what had happened later in the hallways, but he shook the memory away. "The thing is that when I got in the Garrison, everyone thought that my father had bought the seat for me, because they knew how I did on the exams, but not the rest."_ _

__"Oh, no."_ _

__"Oh, yes. During all of my first year all I would hear was how I didn't deserve studying there from different teachers and some students that had barely made the cut." He took another breath. "Then, in second year, Keith gets himself kicked out and they ask me if I'd like to transfer to the combat pilot class. I said yes, and it was a mistake."_ _

__"No it wasn't. You're a great fighter," Shiro cut him, tone completely serious. Lance turned to him with surprise tainting his face. "You are."_ _

__"Well, the teachers didn't think that. My first year it was my dad buying my place, the second was me being there only because Keith was stupid enough to disrespect commander Garrison. And..." His hands were tingling as he recalled just sitting there as Iverson lashed out at him. "It's not nice to not have your accomplishments acknowledged by the rest for that long."_ _

__"I had no idea that they treated you like that," Shiro breathed out. Yes, there was a really big quantity of assholish teachers at the Garrison (he didn't like when people stared at him for too long, thinking that they would start laughing about his eyes like Iverson used to do until his third year), but he certainly hadn't been treated like crap._ _

__"Not even Hunk knew. I mean, he knew something was up, but I never told him what it was about. The thing is that I ended up hating Keith, or at least the concept of him, because everyone would compare me to him and it was awful." He swallowed again and grasped his hands to stop the shaking. "I know it's wrong and that Keith doesn't deserve it, but then I met him and he was an asshole too, so I can't help it."_ _

__"That's weird," Shiro hummed, making Lance turn to him yet again. "Keith told me that he knew a Something McClain always talked shit about him back at the Garrison, and when he met you he was sure you were that guy. That's why he treated you like that. He also doesn't like people talking badly about him."_ _

__"I never talked badly about him. I just said that I didn't know why everyone went crazy over him, multiple times. I did talk shit about the teachers all the time, though," Lance rushed to answer, making Shiro laugh._ _

__"Well, you were surrounded by eighteen-year-olds in need of some gossip while you said that, so I guess it's more than probable that they twisted things before they got to Keith."_ _

__Lance shrugged, sniffing a little bit. When had he started to cry? "I guess," he murmured._ _

__A really long silence followed, in which Lance just tried to recompose himself, thinking about happy things as he counted his breaths in and out and Shiro just tried to remember more of Lance during the Garrison times. He had only been active during their entrance year, because during first year he had been too busy with the Kerberos mission and, although he had only given one seminar, he had to be present in all of them. He did remember chit chat between teachers, talking about how the immigrant son of a millionaire was going to try get in, but they didn't think he'd be able to. He also remembered a few of the questions Lance had asked, and they had honestly left him baffled; so many bureaucratic questions and hypothetical situations about if they were to encounter an alien civilization. He remembered one in particular: "With which criteria would you measure your actions if you discovered a civilization? Has the Garrison made a statement about if they would respect other forms of life? And if they wouldn't, would you follow all of their orders?"_ _

__He also remembered Garrison calling off the seminary before he could even think of an answer._ _

__"I..." Lance started, snapping Shiro out of his memories. "I'm sorry I let stupid people that are not even here interfere with the team. It's just that... I can't get the thought that I don't deserve to be here and that you don't even care out of my head," Lance said, a sob breaking the final sentence._ _

__There was a silence that lasted the amount of time it took for the black paladin’s brain to process that statement. "What?" Shiro's voice had been almost a whisper, and he quickly sat up right, trying to look at the other paladin, who was positively crying right now. "What would make you think that we don't care about you?" he asked, putting what wanted to be a comforting hand on Lance's back._ _

__"I know it's just my stupid head telling me so, but..." he looked at Shiro, debating with himself whether he should tell him or not. _We've already started, might as well finish it_. "In general, no one listens to what I say, you're always screaming at me and... When Keith was in the healing pod the world stopped, but when I came out you were in a time measuring contest." The words flowed out of his mouth like a cascade, and Shiro's heart dropped to the floor._ _

__The memory of when Lance had taken that explosion... When he was the responsible of taking him to the healing bay and got them captured instead, having to watch how Lance was just tossed around while he was more than surely bleeding internally. He remembered that minute the healing pod had calculated the chances of survival, how he had thought of just killing himself because Lance was going to die and he was the one to blame._ _

__And now he was crying too._ _

__"Lance... I was worried sick while you were on the healing pod," he started, voice suddenly too low for his liking. "I couldn't stop thinking about how it was my fault you were like that, how we were going to lose you."_ _

__"It was me the one who jumped in front of the explosion, Shiro. You didn't push me in," Lance tried to reassure him._ _

__"But I failed to protect you when the Galra came in." The sentence fell from his lips as if it were a guillotine. "Everyone was really worried about you, Lance. Hunk barely ate for the three days you were in, Pidge just rambled on about how it was her fault you were not healing because she had preferred to upgrade her lion than the healing pods... Coran kept saying that you had sacrificed yourself for him and Keith... He thought it was his fault, because he rushed away to help the Arusians and walked the rest of the team into a trap instead of staying and saving us... We only stopped freaking out when we were certain you would live, and it took its sweet time to happen." His skin was itching now, and he fought the urge to start scratching his arm until it bled with all he had. "We all care about you, Lance. And I'm sure the rest is also sorry that we made you think the contrary."_ _

__"I'm sorry I'm so dependent on you guys," Lance answered, the shock from all Shiro had just told him still on his face._ _

__"It's okay."_ _

__"Can I hug you?" the blue paladin asked, already opening his arms slowly, and Shiro just nodded. Suddenly he had a lap full of sobbing Lance, and he was hugging him equally tight, trying not to listen to Black cooing in his mind._ _

__"I promise I'll do my best to not make you feel all that stuff you just told me," Shiro began, rubbing Lance's back slowly. "But you have to promise to talk to us if you ever start feeling bad again, okay?"_ _

__"Who do you think you are? My mom? Ariela?" Lance joked and, for once, Shiro just chuckled instead of getting mad, knowing why he did it. "I promise."_ _

__The man patted him on the back before breaking the hug and looking at him with that Responsible Dad™ look._ _

__“Listen. I know you just fought with Keith this morning, and that you have never actually gotten along, so talking with him would probably be really hard… But I think it’s the best you could do right now. You both thought the other hated you, so coming clean about this will improve your relationship… A lot,” he said, and Lance sighed._ _

__“You really think he wants to talk to me?” he asked him, and Shiro made an awkward face._ _

__“He doesn’t, but he will listen if you ask him to.”_ _

# . . .

__Allura turned around in a corner in the healing bay, relief drowning the surprise that took her when she saw that one of the consulting rooms was already being used, most certainly by Coran._ _

__“Coran!” she called out. The man’s head popped from the door when she was almost there, brow furrowing when he saw Ariela, still hyperventilating and clutching to Allura’s dress, in her arms._ _

__“What happened?” he asked, making them come in. The room was empty apart from him, so he had probably just been working on cataloguing human biology, like he liked to do with every new species they met._ _

__Allura let the paladin down in the typical hospital bed, struggling to get the woman to let go of her as she kept asking what was wrong._ _

__“I don’t really know,” she finally decided to answer. “I went into the panther’s hangar to tell her something and I found her like this.”_ _

__“She probably doing the same than Lance this morning. Humans seem to do it when they are extremely upset. Maybe the panther said something to her that made her feel bad,” Coran explained and Ariela pointed at him as she tried to hold her breaths, so apparently that had been it. “I believe that you just have to breathe, Ariela. Try to take deep breaths and then hold them.”_ _

__The woman gave her a thumb up with one hand and clutched Coran’s hand with the other._ _

__“Oh, that a strong grip you have there,” he joked, and Ariela tried to smile, but she was too focused in normalizing her breathing._ _

__“Do you think you could tell us what the panther said to make you this upset?” Allura asked, leaning in and talking low, guessing that it was probably a secret. Ariela cleared her throat before answering with raspy voice._ _

__“No.”_ _

__The two Alteans exchanged a look. This wasn’t good. Definitely not good. Coran mouthed “Cheer her up”._ _

__“So… Ariela. I was actually looking for you to give you some good news,” she said, frowning at the beginning but turning it into a smile when Ariela turned to look at her with a frown. “Remember how I told you that the panther paladin’s uniform had been burnt with its previous paladin?” Ariela nodded. “I have the new uniform ready for whenever you want to use it. And I must say… It is quiznacking great.”_ _

# . . .

__It was hard to find Keith. Lance spent an hour or so wandering around the Castle, hoping that he would run into the red paladin, when he hadn’t been able to find him on his usual spots: training deck, his bedroom… Keith didn’t do much, did he?_ _

__But then, as he turned in direction to the healing bay, he literally crashed into him. He seemed to be running away from something, because they both went flying to the floor and crashed painfully._ _

__“Agh, crap,” Keith groaned as he crawled off Lance. “Oh, it’s you.” He didn’t seem happy at all._ _

__“Listen, I didn’t come here to pick up a fight,” he started._ _

__“Must be my lucky day, because it seems like your favorite activity,” Keith replied, sitting up on top of Lance thighs and looking down at him as he crossed his arms on top of his chest. Lance's heart sank at the sight of Keith's red eye and his swollen nose, eyes tracking the lines his nails had dug with guilt._ _

__“I’m gonna let it slide because I was an asshole this morning, but so were you!” That seemed to take a little bit of edge off from the red paladin. “I talked with Shiro, and we realized that there are a few misunderstandings between us.”_ _

__Keith looked at him with a quirked eyebrow._ _

__“You know how everyone in the Garrison is an asshole right?” he asked, and Keith’s face softened considerably, as his arms fell from his chest._ _

__“Yeah,” was all he managed to get out, remembering how he had been drowning right in front of that people and they had only cared about his grades flailing when his _brother_ , only "actual" family, had died._ _

__“Well, the short version is that they treated me like shit all the time because I’m not eve worth the dust from your shoes and I ended up hating you for it, instead of well directing my hatred and turning it into something productive.” Lance finished the explanation with a smile, holding up his right hand. “We began with our left foot, so I say that we just forget everything and start from scratch. Hi, my name is Lance McClain,” he added, pushing his hand forward._ _

__“It’s not so easy to turn a bad relationship into water under the bridge, Lance. You might not realize it but you hurt me too,” he said, gently pushing Lance’s hand down to his chest._ _

__“I know. We both must have hurt each other a lot without realizing, and I swear we will sit down and talk about it the moment you get off me and I can get up,” the blue paladin started, making Keith realize that he had been sitting in his lap the whole time. He quickly scrambled to his feet, watching how Lance gracefully got up in front of him. “But I would like to state that I am willing to start over and do my best so that we can be friends.”_ _

__Keith let his eyes fall._ _

__“The questions is… Are you?” Lance said, making him gulp._ _

__Was he willing to forget all those dark and negative feelings Lance had made him feel? The nameless guy he had fancied during his Garrison time, looking at him when he passed by the hallway wishing he could just man up and talk to him, had declared himself his rival and proceeded to make their relationship a tense mess._ _

___Come on, Keith_ Red murmured, mentally nudging him forward._ _

__As an answer, Keith held his hand up and open for Lance to shake._ _

__“Keith Kogane. Nice to meet you…”_ _

__“The name’s Lance,” he said with a smile that could have replaced the Sun._ _

# . . .

__There were a few knocks at her door, and Hunk and the woman frowned at the same time. They surely weren’t expecting someone and were certain no one knew they were here. Ariela and he had been extremely careful setting up false leads that would take anyone with suspicions to Green’s hangar while sneaking tea and sweets to the woman’s bedroom._ _

__“Ariela? Are you there?” Shiro’s voice asked from the other side of the door. The woman looked at the smuggled goods that were laying on top of a pretty patterned blanket she had brought from Earth._ _

__“What do we do?” she asked the yellow paladin in a whisper, who in response just got up and dragged the whole blanket into the bathroom before running out of it._ _

__“Come in, Shiro,” Ariela said once Hunk was seated at the desk chair._ _

__The door slid open and the team leader stepped in, squinting his eyes at Hunk when he caught sight of him._ _

__“I caught you red handed,” he murmured, and the boy understood why the man was there._ _

__“Please don’t be mad,” he pleaded, and that made Ariela understand._ _

__“Oh, I know why you’re here now,” she said, standing up from the floor and going to sit on top of the desk so that Shiro could take the bed. “Please, sit,” she added, pointing at the made bed._ _

__“Were you two gossiping about me?” he asked, his voice lacking the edge Hunk had imagined it would have._ _

__“Nope. We were gossiping about the panther,” the woman answered with an awkward smile. Just as awkward as the silence that followed._ _

__Shiro broke it by clearing his throat. “Listen, Ariela. I don’t know what Hunk told you, but it’s not as bad as its seems,” he said, trying to sound as confident as he wanted to feel. It didn’t work at all, because the woman only seemed to worry further._ _

__“Hunk only told me your story, Shiro, and that is more than enough,” she said, joining both of her hands at her lap. “A year as prisoner of sadistic alien beasts? I don’t know how you’re not climbing up the walls.” Her voice lowered itself to almost a whisper at the last part._ _

__“It’s because it’s not that bad. I’m fine.”_ _

__“Shiro,” Hunk said, and suddenly his nickname made the air heavier. “We both know you’re not okay. Please let us help you,” he told him._ _

__He was going to reassure them that he was indeed okay, but then his vision flickered and he was not in Ariela’s bedroom anymore; he was in the arena, covered in blood with the Galra soldiers cheering screams defeaning him and the sight of Sendak walking towards him with an awful grin making him want to throw up._ _

___Are you really okay, Shiro?_ Black asked him, and then he saw her for the first time. She appeared walking calmly next to him, seeming foreign to the chaotic atmosphere. Dark skin, black shoulder-length hair and on reaching the fifties. She was human._ _

___Your memories keep coming back and you’re already at the breaking point, Shiro. It is too much for you_. She turned and eyed Sendak with disdain, who had gotten considerably closer and was reaching out to grab him already. _Do you think you can deal with him alone again?_._ _

__“NO!” he screamed, shoving hard and jumping back, only to crash against the wall of Ariela’s bed, as the other two paladins eyed him with horror. He had a sheen of cold sweat over all of his body and his hands were trembling._ _

__“It’s okay, you’re back,” Ariela said, getting down from the desk and oh-so-slowly getting closer to him. “Was it a flashback?” she asked, when she finally reached the bed, noticing that Shiro wasn’t making any attempt to get away._ _

__“No. It was Black pushing her boundaries,” he answered in a growl, but judging by the look in Ariela’s eyes she wasn’t buying it. He sighed._ _

__“There wouldn’t be anything wrong with letting us help you, Shiro,” Hunk said, leaning in closer._ _

__“I don’t want your help, okay? I don’t need it! It’s not worth it,” he snapped, crawling out of the bed and trying to go for the door, but Ariela got in his way, a gentle hand on his shoulder._ _

__“Why isn’t it worth it?” she asked. Her eyes had a glint he had seen before in Lance; it meant that she had picked up on something useful or enlightening._ _

__“Just drop it,” he breathed out, before walking around her and getting out of the room._ _

__She turned to look at Hunk. “So… That went well.”_ _

# . . .

__Allura had talked with Coran for a long time, trying to come up with the right strategy and words for Lance, and she had come out of the consulting room with a really sketchy outline of something a five-year-old would call a plan, so she could only help that Lance was in a good mood after waking up._ _

__Thankfully, he was, weirdly enough._ _

__She found Lance sitting in the common room, sharing a sofa with Keith and passionately discussing something about asshole teachers and this one blonde girl that used to sit behind Keith and apparently was a massive bitch. They both had smiles plastered in their faces, Keith widely gesticulating with his hands and Lance bouncing up and down on his seat from time to time._ _

__“I’m glad to see you two made up,” she said, tone sincere, making the two paladins turn towards her._ _

__“Turns out there were many misunderstandings and we just needed to sit down and talk,” Keith told her, a faint blush climbing up and smiling fading away a little bit._ _

__“Apparently, Keith used to think that I hated him and talked shit about him in the Garrison because this one girl I refused to date got mad and talked shit about me,” Lance explained, making Allura frown._ _

__“Humans are too complex for my taste, you know?” she asked, sitting down in the sofa in front of them and looking at Keith. “I’m sorry to interrupt, but do you think I could talk alone with Lance for a while?” she asked him, and Keith just nodded, got up and left, squeezing Lance’s shoulder on his way out and making the teens face turn into one of surprise._ _

__“Wow,” he said the instant the door slid shut._ _

__“I’m really happy that you two worked things out,” Allura smiled at him. “I would be even happier if we could do it too,” she added, lowering her face._ _

__Lance nodded, sitting up straighter. “I know I used to flirt with you like… _all the time_ , and looking back on it, it was awful from me and I’m sorry, because you clearly didn’t like it.” He took in a deep breath. “It’s just that flirting is my way of breaking the ice, and I kept receiving this vibe of… hate from you,” he chuckled._ _

__Allura’s ears perked up at that, just like her face. “What? No. I don’t hate you, Lance, of course I don’t,” she quickly said. “It’s just… I don’t have exactly a good relationship with flirting,” she admitted with a groan._ _

__“Why’s that?” Lance was frowning, utterly confused. For him and everyone he knew, flirting was a quick way to know a possible partner and maybe friend, a funny and carefree way to break the ice._ _

__“Oh, well.” Allura grabbed her hair and started (awfully) braiding it. “You know that in Altea you can marry into royalty, right? So, every guy I met would start flirting with me ever since I turned… What would it be in human years? Fifteen. No one ever did it because they were interested in me, they always did it because they were interested in the crown,” she explained herself._ _

__“Okay, that’s not nice,” Lance mumbled. “So, every time I flirted with you I reminded you of that?” he asked, and the princess stopped._ _

__“My moodiness at you was kind of an automatized response to the flirting. I never considered that you could be flirting for other motive than wanting to marry and become a prince.”_ _

__Lance laughed. “Lol. Listen, Allura. Don’t get me wrong, I would make an amazing prince and you are amazing, but the last thought I ever had on my mind while flirting with you was marrying for your crown. I mean, what the fuck?” he was still laughing as he talked, making Allura smile._ _

__“Thanks, Lance. I’m sorry I was so mean to you because of that. I also admit that the joking around all the time kind of made me mad too. I know I take this war too seriously because is the only thing there for me,” she breathed out, getting surprised when Lance put one of his hands on top of hers._ _

__“Now we’re here for you too, princess.” He shut up after that, staring at his hand, now knowing if he should pull it away or leave it there. He decided on the later when Allura gave him a small smile and put her other hand on top of his. “You should spend more time with us. We might be a mess, but I’m sure you would enjoy wiping the training deck with our bodies like Coran swore you could do,” he chuckled, and Allura gave him an evil grin. “It won’t be hard beating me though, I’m a complete mess.”_ _

__“Aww, don’t be so hard on yourself. I’m sure you just haven’t found your style. Ever since I taught dizhitsu to Ariela she’s been fighting like a Southern Warrior. She’s managed to defeat me a couple of times… Although I might have let her…,” she added with a chuckle._ _

__“Yeah, but you’re too busy teaching Ariela. I would only be an obstacle,” he mumbled. Allura’s eyes opened wide._ _

__“I’m sure Coran wouldn’t mind tutoring you on the afternoons. It would take a little bit of your free time, but it would help you improve.” He smiled at her and mouthed a thank you. “I could help you improve your Altean too. It would also be good for me, because you could help me update the information of the Castle.”_ _

__“Really?” Lance asked; he was beaming._ _

__“Yeah! Why not? Plus, it will help us get closer, and I think we need to do that.”_ _

# . . .

__Doing secret projects in the Castle was a nightmare, a borderline impossible mission, and Pidge hated herself for keeping trying. But hey, she had already gotten to the point where spite was her fuel, and everyone knows that spite is the best fuel._ _

__Thank God she had the mice on her side. The little Altean rodents had sworn to her that they wouldn’t tell Allura about what she was doing (with signs of course). Besides, it wasn’t like she was doing something wrong, right? There was no need for Allura to know about her moves if she was just trying to make an improvement in the Castle._ _

__“According to this blueprints, one of the main cable boxes is somewhere on the healing bay,” she murmured through the pencil she had on her mouth, hearing squeaks as an answer. “I hope this isn’t like that fiasco on the storage bay,” she quickly added, remembering that whole week she had spent looking for that damn cable box and she hadn’t been able to find it._ _

__She was going to walk past the door of one of the many consulting rooms, but then she heard a voice. She stopped walking, wondering why there was people here, if there hadn’t been any injuries lately._ _

__“It’s stopped spreading lately, but they surely aren’t going away,” Keith moaned in frustration. Pidge frowned, deciding that yes, she had to listen to this. “I don’t know what to do. Sometimes the get a little bigger.”_ _

__“I’ve run all the tests I could on the blood sample I took from you. It doesn’t match any disease that we have registered on the Castle, and we have almost every known disease in the known universe,” Coran answered, closing with a tired sigh._ _

__“What if it isn’t a disease? What if it’s something else?” Suddenly, Keith’s voice was too close to the door._ _

___Oh, crap_. Pidge pushed herself away from the wall and sprinted into another of the consulting rooms, her door closing just in time the other opened._ _

__“I can’t imagine what it could be if it isn’t a disease, Keith, but I’ll try to find out,” she heard Coran say, and then two sets of footsteps going in separate ways._ _

__“What the fuck was that?” she asked the mice, and they just shook their heads as an answer._ _

# . . . 

__Allura and he talked for almost two hours. The schedule planning talk had turned into an Earth culture class after half an hour, and Lance at some point had ended up braiding Allura’s hair while she talked about how she missed Altea. She also mentioned that she had liked him a lot while they were at Earth, he had seemed so at peace, and that she had wished they could be friends. That statement ended up in Lance teaching her a secret handshake, a quick flirting lesson, and the promise that he, Ariela and Allura would have a slumber party someday soon._ _

__Coran had walked in then, saying that meal time was nearing, and that if he didn’t get Hunk in the kitchen, he would cook dinner himself._ _

__So now Lance was in a quest of finding Hunk, the wellbeing of their stomachs at stake._ _

__And, oh boy, did he found him._ _

__He entered the training deck only to find two paladins beating the crap of the Gladiator. Hunk had half of his paladin suit on and would shoot his bayard whenever he could, running away or smashing the Gladiator in the head when it got too close. And the other paladin… He could only assume it was Ariela._ _

__The whole suit was black. It seemed lighter and it obviously allowed more movement. The helmet’s visor was down and it was completely black, adding even more to the whole badass aura the suit gave off. Ariela’s bayard was black and white staff, probably taller than her, but he just couldn’t tell because she wouldn’t stay fucking still._ _

__“Jesus Christ!” he exclaimed with an exited laugh after Hunk shot one of the Gladiator’s arm off when Ariela distracted him by jumping over him and smashing his head with the staff._ _

__The two paladins made the mistake of turning to look at him in surprise, and the robot made quick work of them now that they weren’t paying attention. Ariela eneded up sprawled on top of Hunk, bayards far away from them and deactivated._ _

__“End training sequence,” Lance said with the clearest voice he could manage, and the Gladiator went back to wherever it was kept and auto repaired. “You guys were amazing! Which level was it?” he asked as he jogged over to the other paladins and offered Ariela a hand to help her get up._ _

__The visor went up to reveal Ariela’s flushed and sweaty face._ _

__“That was only level four,” she groaned._ _

__“But I’ve only reached level two! It was amazing!” Hunk laughed excited. “I’d never trained so well with anyone!” he admitted._ _

__“That’s because it’s a good combination, long and short-range fighters,” Lance stated, once they were both up. “So, I talked with Shiro, Keith and Allura,” he murmured._ _

__“And? How did it go?” Ariela asked, starting to take the plaques of the armor off._ _

__“It went great with the three of them. I’ll give you the details later, but it’s been amazing,” he admitted._ _

__“I’m glad you feel better, buddy,” Hunk said, ruffling Lance’s hair._ _

__“Yeah, me too,” he murmured._ _

__“I knew you could do it, bro.” Lance nodded, sliding an arm through Ariela’s shoulders and Hunk’s waist._ _

__“The truth is that I wouldn’t have been able to do it without you two… and Coran.” He sighed, ignoring the puzzled looks. “You’ve always been there for me, even if I was being a jerk, and you called me out on my shit. I’m sorry I never truly opened up to you even though I would trust you with my life,” he finished, looking at both of them._ _

__“Aww, Lancey Lance, that’s so cute,” Ariela whined. “Here comes the sweaty hug!”_ _

__“Group hug! Group hug! Group hug!”_ _

# . . .

__“Crew, could I have your attention for a minute?” Coran asked, as he got up. The chatting ceased over the dining table as they all turned to look at him, curious of the man’s solemn expression and the cup he was holding in his hand._ _

__“Go ahead, Coran,” Allura motioned him, and he smiled at her._ _

__“Today has been an important day for all of us. There is still a lot of work to do, but we’re slowly coming together as a family instead of a group of people put together by a cruel present,” he said. “There will be more obstacles ahead, of course, but I’m sure we will overcome them together, just like we did today.”_ _

__Ariela grabbed Lance’s hand on top of the table as he shot a smile to Shiro._ _

__“The previous paladins… They had problems like this too. And despite being so similar to them, you managed to solve them better than they did. That’s why I think you will be able to put an end to the war they failed to stop. You just got to keep coming together and trusting each other.” Coran finished, raising his glass. “To the new paladins of Voltron,” he said with a smile._ _

__Pidge stood up on her chair, holding a glass of purple juice._ _

__“To the crew of the Castle of Lions!”_ _

__“Cheers!” they all exclaimed, before drinking._ _

# . . .

__If there was something a predator didn’t like, was being cornered and overpowered, so the panther was quite in a bad mood when the five hunters locked him in the middle of a circle in the mindscape, growls flowing from their mouths as they circled him, muscles tense._ _

__“You are unbelievable,” Blue muttered. “You know this paladin is as good as the former, and yet you prefer to keep throwing tantrums instead of serving your purpose!” She lashed at him, white teeth closing inches away from his face, and he made a show of baring his._ _

__“You know my motives.”_ _

__“Of course I know them,” Gold butted in, breaking the circle in favor of walking into it to push him around. “You’re selfish and you don’t want to get hurt again.”_ _

__“COWARD!” Red roared, slashing the ground with her claws._ _

__“You _must_ fight with us, panther!” Green exclaimed, childish insistence staining her voice._ _

__Black stopped her pacing and sat down in front of him, looking like a queen._ _

__“Pay attention to me, panther…” she started, blinking slowly. “I know that you’re afraid this paladin will just use you like the previous one to only leave you with her open wounds reflected on you. But Ariela is not Heyra. She is not as violent.”_ _

__He pounced at her, making her retreat._ _

__“You haven’t seen inside her mind, Black. There’s darkness to that light exterior of hers,” he spat through gritted teeth. “You can’t assure me she won’t treat me like they used to treat us without knowing her.”_ _

__“Ariela would never do that!” Blue exclaimed outraged. “Lance knows her, and if he says she is good the she is good.”_ _

__“Well, there are things that your pretty pilot doesn’t know, _translator_ ,” he said in a mocking tone._ _

___That’s enough_ a familiar voice boomed, making the six of them shut up immediately. _I have personally chosen her, panther. You can’t choose here, so you better accept your rightful pilot or prepare to cease existing the second _I_ take over. Understood?”__ _

___Silence._ _ _

___“Understood?” the voice repeated._ _ _

___“Yes,” the panther whispered, lowering his head. “I understand.”_ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hell, this one was HARD to write. I'm still not completely happy with the result, but whatever.  
> Yes, Keith was running away from the healing bay because he didn't want Allura to see him there. I wonder why that is...  
> Anywyas, I was listening to the song "Young blood" by Bea Miller while I thought of Coran giving that small speech.  
> Hope you liked it. Don't forget to leave kudos and Comments ;)


	6. Well you're a hot mess and I'm falling for you.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith is so gay.

Keith wasn’t sure his brain had managed to process all the changes that had taken place ever since his fight with Lance and the day they all spoke with him for hours. This new reality felt weird for him, even though it ran as smoothly as it could; it was almost as if he were watching everything from inside a bubble. The subject had solidified the next morning, when Allura asked them all to come and have breakfast together so that they could speak about all the issues as a team. It was short, as they just repeated stuff they had said the day before, but more light-heartedly this time. Coran had also told them that he would be training privately with Lance while they trained their physical ability to help him adjust, and Allura offered all of them free Altean classes. Lance, Ariela and Pidge signed up, while the rest settled for having their afternoons totally free.

Don’t get him wrong, that chat wasn’t magical. It didn’t come natural to them noticing when Lance was joking to relieve tension and when it was actual joking, but the Blue paladin learnt to cut short the joking and if he did drop a pun or two, he backed them up with his actual opinion on the subject. He also flirted less with Allura, but the times he did it as a reflex, she didn’t seem to get pissed at him; now that she knew he did it because he felt awkward but comfortable enough with her, it was endearing. She actually started flirting back after a week, surprising all of them.

Aside from that, after that day, the panther had suddenly decided that Ariela was worthy to pilot it. The woman said that the panther had sounded like he was being held at gunpoint to do it, but it still let her. This brought suspicion, but they all took it thankfully, they couldn’t be picky after all. 

Allura, Lance, Shiro and Keith divided the chore of teaching the new paladin the controls on the cockpit, just like they had done with the two non-pilots in their time. And, surprisingly, Keith found out that she wasn’t that much of an asshole as he used to think. At the beginning it was super awkward and they would barely talk to each other, but then she started making sex jokes and he started laughing at them. Before he knew it, she had invited him to one of the weekly afternoon tea parties she held with Hunk just to gossip and get to know each other. He helped them smuggle the goods to the woman’s bedroom (which was amazingly decorated with fairy lights and small pots of plants and /so many rocks/) and drank his tea in silence, letting the other two do the talking. They never complained, and conformed with a nod or shake of his head when they were asking for opinion. It was definitely nice.

After lunch they had a free period for them to do as they pleased before the afternoon activities began. Pidge would always banish from this plane of existence after training, and Shiro was usually found napping around Coran, who talked to himself non-stop as he did random things in the castle. Allura had taken up the habit of napping too, she just preferred to do it on her own bedroom, and Hunk went into the kitchen to do God knows why, because he didn’t cook all the time. Coran had put the training deck under lock for that period of time, so Keith started hanging out with Lance and Ariela in the lounge so he wouldn’t get bored.

That was when things started going downfall.

You couldn’t really blame him; if he already thought Lance was hot like the Sun at the Garrison, imagine how he started feeling after getting to know the calmer part of him. He knew he was gone and crushing hard when he realised that he had spent forty minutes just watching Lance read with the most adorable pouts, gasping from time to time.

He was so worried about this new problem (because crushing on straight-fuckboy Lance was definitely not good), that he had almost completely forgotten about the old one. That was, at least, until Coran came running to the lounge, dragging the rest of the team behind him. He looked excited.

“Remember that through medical examination I put all of you through two weeks ago?” he asked, pushing Pidge into the sofa and opening a hologram that showed two different line graphs 

/Oh, yeah/ Keith thought. /That medical examination you asked to cover up for my little problem/.

“Please don’t tell me someone has cancer,” Hunk pleaded. Coran dismissed his fears with a gesture of his hand, turning to point at the two graphs in the screen.

“Don’t worry Hunk, these are nothing but good news.” The royal advisor took in a deep breath and looked at all of them before starting. “I was comparing the latest scans with the ones the ship got from you after different occasions and I found out that your body has been changing… Quite rapidly.”

Six pairs of eyes stared at him with confusion.

“Are we going through some space puberty?” Lance asked, sounding genuinely confused. Coran shook his head.

“No. They haven’t actually changed, but your rhythms have. The power of all your body has been increased at least ten times. You heal faster, you learn faster, you have much more empathic powers, you are stronger, faster and you can storage so much more information in your brains than you used to be able to!”

Hunk, Allura and Ariela quirked their heads to the side and stared at the man. “So we’re turning into super humans, like Captain America?” the yellow paladin asked, gaining a chuckle from his friends. 

“I don’t know that Captain, but you could say that you’re turning into super humans, yes!” he nodded excitedly. 

“Wait.” Shiro didn’t like this, it was just too good to be true. Although, yeah, he felt a little better and he was resting (not sleeping, he couldn’t actually do more than nod off during his so called naps), he had been running on only five nights of sleep for the last three days. “Our bodies are working a lot faster and better, great. But how does it affect them?” 

“That’s the best part! It isn’t affecting you in any negative way. You’re even starting to age slower. Your cells are stronger and more durable. I wouldn’t be surprised if you had tougher skin right now.”

An intense silence followed, as the six paladins focused on recalling things that wouldn’t be normal for them before.

“I knew I had picked up on that fighting style way too easily! You said that it took you three years to dominate the five styles of /acotera/, and I’ve been learning for only a month and already dominated one?” Keith turned to look at Lance. What the fuck did he said he had just learnt?

“It is true, but you have to think that I had absolutely no contact with this fighting style, and it was also the opposite of what I was taught in the North. It took at least two years of ridding me of those customs and taking in the Western style. You, on the other hand, said that it was pretty much kung fu and that you had practiced it for two years” Coran explained.

“Still pretty impressive, though,” Allura butted in, smiling at the blue paladin. “Also, the three of you are already fluent in Altean, Hunk has the same knowledge in Altean technology as me, and Keith has been getting better at team training. This is great.”

“This…, does explain much,” Shiro commented, nodding in acceptance.

“I don’t know guys. Doesn’t it worry you? Not knowing why this is happening?” Pidge asked, she looked at Hunk and then at Coran. “Couldn’t we spend some time trying to figure out what is causing this improvement?” she asked.

Coran started caressing his moustache and Hunk cupped his chin. “Now that you mention it, I’m worried about the effects that isolation from whatever is causing these effects on us could have,” the paladin muttered. He turned to Allura. “Do you think we could take a few days off? This is kind of an important thing to figure out.”

“I’ve actually been thinking of taking one of this /weekends/ you talk about so much. Taking that day off to talk about stuff and just relax really helped improve your bond as a team and your health, so I thought about making it a casual thing. Plus, you’re all lacking vitamin D, and that comes from a sun, if I’m not wrong. We could stop at a planet, breathe some fresh air…”

Now she was being stared at by six pairs of confused eyes.

“Is she joking or…?” Lance whispered into Keith’s ear, clearly pretending to tease Allura, but making the red paladin freeze on the spot when he felt the hot breath against his skin. Oh, no, he was dead.

Allura frowned and squinted at Lance. “If you don’t want to that’s fine by me,” she said, dropping her hands on her lap, causing a quick chorus of /No, no no/ that made her smile. “You can take the day off, I’ll find some nice place to land the Castle.”

“I am going to throw the best slumber party of this century. Coran!” Lance screamed, scaring the advisor. “Do we have alcohol?”

“I believe we have something similar to your alcohol, yes.” Lance’s face transfigured into something evil.

“Lance, Pidge is still a minor,” Shiro murmured, but the girl snorted.

“If you think I have never gotten drunk before you’re incredibly gullible,” she laughed.

“KATIE!” he exclaimed, face starting to redden.

“Oh, come on! I know you used to sneak out of the Garrison to smoke pot with Matt sometimes,” she said nonchalantly.

“WHAT?” Lance screamed this time, as Ariela started to choke in laughter.

“Yeah, that’s true,” Keith smiled, calling Lance’s attention. That bright smile startled him and compelled him to spill out more information. “He took me with them when we were in first year. He starts crabing pineapple and starts to show off how quickly he can calculate the force of gravity of any planet.” Lance chuckled and pointed at Ariela.

“She can derive any function you give her but forgets how geometrical forms are called. She once called a rectangle “Sponge Bob” while drunk,” he told him, and Keith actually chuckled like Lance had before.

“If you’re done talking shit about us, we could start planning everything,” Ariela said, arms crossed and pissed off at them.

# ...

Pidge, Hunk and Coran ran away the second it was stated that yes, they were going to take a weekend off and they could do as the pleased, the three of them looking giddy to discover this miraculous thing that had improved their lives. The other four crew members were left behind as a sacrifice to Lance, the God of slumber parties. 

Lance was a social butterfly all of his life, just like the rest of his family. Friends and family gatherings weren’t something that was handled with little care, and Lance had inherited his grandmother’s perfectionist eye for planning. He had to do a stock checking, item recollecting and mapping of the grounds before starting to do the schedule.

Shiro and Keith were quite surprised, while Ariela just did as Lance ordered, giving him the information he asked for without batting an eyelash.

“Do you think it is really necessary for us to make a schedule for a slumber party?” Shiro dared to ask, and Lance just lifted his head from the purple notebook he had brought from his room to write everything into.

“You didn’t just ask that,” Ariela murmured with a chuckle.

“I’m sorry, Shiro. Do you want what could be out perfect bonding night to be absolute boring trash or do you want to have the best fun you ever had in your life?” Lance asked, sounding like an outraged cheerleader on a teen movie.

Keith leaned in to whisper: “Say number two” in his ear.

“Number two,” he nodded obediently. Lance gave an appreciative hum and turned his eyes back to the notebook. Now that he didn’t have Lance’s murderous eyes on him, Shiro allowed himself to yawn and stretch a little, catching Ariela’s eyes.  
“We should nap for a while, so that we’re well rested for tonight’s party. Don’t you think so?” the woman asked, and Lance’s eyes glinted. “We could even make a cuddle-pile.”

“YES! WE SHOULD DO THAT!” Lance screamed, excited.”I haven’t been in a cuddle-pile since your birthday last year.” The boy turned to look at Shiro with pleading eyes. “Can we? Please, please, pleaseeeeee.”

“Um...” Shiro gulped. Cuddling? With Lance, his sister and Keith?

“We should do it,” Keith butted in with monotonous voice, making the black paladin frown. /The fuck? Keith wants to cuddle?/ he thought. The red paladin turned to Shiro with intense eyes.

“I guess it wouldn’t hurt?”

Lance started jumping up and down, not looking like someone who wanted to nap. “We have to get lots of blankets and pillows, and Ariela can bring her phone and play one of her relaxing playlists!”

“Why is Lance so excited?” Allura asked with a frown. Apparently, she had already landed the castle. Ariela got up and smiled at her.

“We’re all going to nap together in a cuddle-pit,” she explained, before running to take Allura’s hand and drag her out of the lounge again. “First, we have to raid empty bedrooms.”

# ...

They raided the empty bedrooms so hard that the lounge’s floor was unseeable. It was covered in pillows and soft blankets. Allura had showed them how to summon the control panel in every room to dim the lights, and they had also discovered that the castle could connect with Bluetooth, so they were all currently laying down in the pillow-pit, listening to “Was there nothing?” by Ásgeir. Shiro, who had been the one to resist the most, was snoring softly into Keith’s ear. The man’s arms were worryingly tight around him, but he noticed that Shiro didn’t even stir; he knew about their leader’s nightmares (had heard a few of them coming back from the training room well into the morning), so he was amazed by that and didn’t even try to remove Shiro’s arm.

Plus, he had a bigger problem to worry about. He was crushing on Lance? Lance, who was currently sleeping with his chin tucked on top of his head and his left hand tangled on his hair. He had started facing the other way, hugging Ariela close to him and maybe purposefully leaving a small space between him and the red paladin, but once he fell asleep, he started moving until they ended up like this. Not that Keith was complaining though, that had been why he had insisted Shiro on agreeing. If he did it alone the rest might suspect.

No, he was not complaining. He was just panicking. He had let himself crush in Lance? Lance, the straight and flirty guy who had (who Keith was certain was) his girlfriend on board? Because, come on, close family friend his balls, those two were too close and comfortable with physical contact to be soul siblings. And, god, was he jealous of her. Ariela was a great gal and all, but he wanted to be the one to just walk in a room to sit into Lance’s lap and whisper into his ear about God knows what. He couldn’t help but wonder what it’d be like to have someone like that instead of some nameless guy shoving him against a wall in a bar. Yes, he sucked with feelings, but that didn’t mean he didn’t have them.

Lance hummed and squirmed a little bit, putting his left leg on top of Keith’s, his foot trapped between Shiro’s and Keith’s legs. Keith let go of a long breath.

Even if Ariela was just his soul sibling, there was still Allura. Lance didn’t really know what they had talked about after he left, but suddenly they seemed to love each other. The princess smiled at the blue boy more often and had even started to flirt back? That was not fair.

Allura sneezed in the other end of the cuddle-pile, her mental breakdown halting for a few seconds before her mind went back to spiralling down.

/ What the quiznack? What the quiznack? What the quiznack?/ she wondered, face buried in between Ariela’s shoulder blades, the same shoulder blades she had been staring at the day before while they trained. Well, she had been staring at the woman’s whole back, watching how the muscles worked as she absently lifted some weights.

It was really unlike her to ogle people, but women? It had never happened! I mean, she had always blushed when girls complimented her and she had wanted to hug that one Galerian princess until they both died, and the Girgkean first lady had looked at her with eyes that had made her knees tremble that one time they visited her planet in search of an alliance.

/Oh, no/. She might be... What had Ariela called it?

Gay.

# ...

They all slept at least three hours before Lance woke up. He blushed and laughed a little bit to finding the compromising position he and Keith had ended in (legs tangled between legs, the shorter paladin with his face buried in his chest and arms draped around his waist, Lance’s left hand tangled on black –surprisingly- silky hair) and got up to get on with the planning.

Keith woke up shortly after because he felt cold, and found Lance dragging a white board he had seen in the library, along with a fancy box filled with colourful markers. He offered his help, so Lance asked him to go to find some of those “alcoholic” drinks Coran had mentioned.

Shiro, still asleep and searching for warmth, ended up getting closer to the girls, and Ariela woke up tightly sandwiched between the hot princess and the hot paladin. One of Allura’s hands was actually on one of her boobs, and Shiro was pressing her up against him as if she was a teddy bear and he was having a nightmare. She might or might not smiled to herself and gone back to sleep.

Allura woke up to Keith and Lance arguing about something.

“YOU’VE NEVER BEEN TO A SLUMBER PARTY BEFORE?” Lance screamed, words followed by a dramatic gasp when Keith indignantly shook his head and crossed his arms on top of his chest defensively.

“It’s not like everyone was dying to invite me,” she heard the red paladin mumble, and suddenly a shadow crossed Lance’s face. Allura frowned, feeling a little thrown off by that darkness surrounding him, but Lance gulped once and flashed Keith his signature smile.

“Well, then I have a lot to teach you.” With slow steps he got closer to where Keith was sitting and dropped down next to him.

“That’s why I don’t know any of your stupid games,” the red paladin said, a little bit lower and sounding ashamed, but Lance just shrugged and shimmied an arm through Keith’s shoulders, slow enough for the other paladin to reject him.

Allura thought she might have heard an It’s okay Keith, you’ll have fun or something similar, but she wasn’t quite sure.

“I was meaning to ask what a slumber party was,” she announced, voice rough from sleep, as she combed her tousled hair with her fingers. Lance gasped dramatically again.

“I have so much to teach you two!”

After that, Ariela woke up again. This time she was laying on her back, Shiro on top of her and hugging her tightly again; there was no way she could move from there without waking him up, so she just let her head fall in resignation and started scratching his scalp absent mindedly, like she used to do to Benjamin.

“So that is why you don’t want to let anyone put your hand in a bowl of water,” Lance concluded, making Ariela look up. He was standing in front of a white board where instructions about slumberpartying were written in both English and Altean. 

Keith made a worried huffing noise as he moved on his seat. “Why do I feel Pidge will try to do that?”

“Because she is a prank-gremlin,” Ariela said from her spot, making them turn to look at her. Allura had a little bit of colour on her cheeks and quickly turned to stare at the front again. Lance smiled wickedly.

“Look at that, a talking pillow!” he exclaimed, making Keith chuckle. “How’s your life as the mattress of a hot guy going?” he asked, making Keith frown and then turn to look at him, but it went unnoticed by the blue paladin.

Ariela made a nonchalant gesture. “I’m definitely not complaining. Do you have any idea of how big this guy’s pecs are?” she asked, sending the three of the others into an ugly laughing fit, although Allura’s was awkward and Keith’s more of a nervous “What the fuck?” laugh. “What time is it?” she asked, rubbing her eyes.

“It’s almost time to take the bears out of the cave. We managed to make some snacks, but we still need Hunk’s expertise because, apparently, Allura can’t be trusted in a kitchen,” Lance informed her, making the princess blush harder.

“I just do what Hunk tells me, and I had never cooked in my life before, so it’s not that surprising,” she defended herself.

# ...

Shiro woke up incredibly slowly. First he heard muffled sounds; voices, clincking and laughter. Then, he smelt the food. By the time he actually opened his eyes he had been awake for a few minutes.

Everyone was sitting around him, picking snacks up from the plates that were scattered through the sofas. Lance was slumped against Hunk as the yellow paladin told a dramatic story about them sneaking out of the Garrison, Pidge was sitting on her own with her knees held tightly to her chest and her chin resting on them, Allura, Keith and Coran were all sitting together, listening with attention and Ariela...

Ariela was lying under him, scratching his scalp slowly while looking at Hunk with attention. Shiro actually had the right side of his face squished against her chest. That was what made him shoot up, planking on top of the woman who squeaked at the sudden movement before chuckling.

“Look who woke up! You’ve been out for seven hours, captain,” she informed him straightening the wrinkles he had made on her t-shirt.

“Wha-... Why didn’t you wake me up?” he asked, voice rough and raspy. He was incredibly thirsty and all his body felt heavy. /Seven hours/... He couldn’t remember the last time he had slept so much (it had probably been a coma in the healing pods).

“You looked so peaceful that we didn’t want to wake you! You are always tired, and you deserve the rest, Shiro!” Coran answered cheerfully, incapable of hiding the happiness he felt. Sleep Deprivation Shiro had just almost had a full and healthy cycle of sleep.

“Of course we would have woken you eventually. Wouldn’t want you missing the best slumber party ever,” Lance chuckled. An aura of giddiness surrounded him, and he was slowly passing it to Hunk, who was already smiling wider than normal. 

Shiro grumbled as he sat up on the floor, watching a little flushed as Ariela did the same and immediately went after one of the food plates. “I don’t even want to imagine what you organized without supervision,” he mumbled before thanking Pidge for the snacks she passed him.

“Pshh.” Lance made a gesture with his hand and smiled flirtatiously. “Of course I didn’t do anything bad.”

# . . .

Technically it wasn’t bad. Were they all wasted? Yes. Would they remember everything from this night tomorrow morning? Probably not. But no one was getting hurt and they were having a blast, so that meant this was going perfectly.

At the beginning they went easy. A few games of “say it with mimics”, the hangman and chatting about funny anecdotes had them entertained for a while.

The messy part had started with a game of Never Have I Ever, where not only was Shiro classified as the most vanilla of the “sexually active” group, but he learnt that Ariela lived a /really interesting life/ and Keith had apparently lost his virginity while he was a prisoner. He was so going to give him shit for not telling. After all, he had told him about Lila.

With that game, Ariela and Keith got drunk, Shiro and Lance tipsy and Pidge got so drunk she ended up falling asleep, because someone (Hunk) kept targeting her. Hunk then proceeded to start a game of truth or dare, where Coran and Allura and felt like they could participate more, and that was when things started getting a little bit out of control. But at the same time they had learnt many things.

“Sweet, innocent Allura,” Ariela had started after the princess chose truth. “Have you ever had sex with someone?”

A flushed and tipsy Allura had frowned, completely ignoring Coran’s scrutinizing eyes and shook her head. “Of course not! Knowing someone out of wedlock is extremely frowned upon in Altea!”

Then Coran had turned around and she had winked at Ariela and nodded before sipping her glass.

Keith had dared Lance to do a split and proceeded to congratulate himself for such brilliance as Lance dropped down on the floor flawlessly without braking eye contact.

Hunk may or may not have started a sabotage club during high school, whose target was the principal. Said club also may or may not have succeeded.

Ariela was dared to name all the geometrical figures, which had ended with Shiro receiving a marker to the face for laughing so much.

Keith had just dared Lance to shoot an apple on top of someone’s head when Hunk, the less wasted one, shot everything down and put some music on and lowered the lights.

Coran said his goodbyes and went to sleep, carrying Pidge to her bedroom.

Then things got fuzzy for Shiro. He could recall seconds; Ariela and Lance dancing together on top of the sofa, Hunk and Keith rapping to Eminem at the top of their lungs, himself getting in a dancing competition with Ariela when a Brazilian song came through the playlist. He isn’t really sure if he actually danced with Lance, grabbing his waist and Lance’s hand on his hair or if he dreamt it. Oh, and Ariela had taught Allura to dance, but the princess hadn’t been able to do nothing apart from staring in awe when the paladin started to twerk.

The next thing he knew is that he was waking up to Coran clapping his hands, his head killing him and the light burning his retinas. He just hugged his really warm pillow closer and nuzzled it.

“I can’t believe this is universe’s last hope,” Coran grumbled.

Allura had fallen asleep against one of the sofa’s, neck angled in a way that let the royal advisor know it would hurt, a whole strand of hair on her mouth and the rest sticking to her face. Lance was resting his head on her lap and Allura seemed to have been caressing his hair before falling asleep because her hands where still tangled on it. Shiro was literally on top of Lance and hugging him tightly, head resting in the middle of the blue paladin’s back.

On top of other sofa, Keith was sleeping next to Ariela while his head rested on her chest, snoring softly. The woman had her mouth open and looked like she might have passed to a better life. She was actually wearing Hunk’s bandana tied around her head.

Speaking about Hunk, he was nowhere to be seen.

“COME ON, EVERYONE, IT’S TIME TO WAKE UP!” the man yelled, and Allura straightened her neck with an awkward snore-gasp sound. Keith mumbled something annoyed and cuddled closer to the woman, slowly opening his eyes and looking around like an angry cat.

“/¡Cinco minutos más!/” Ariela begged with a sob, and Lance yelled a /Por favor/.

“Come on guys, you have to wake up, drink a lot of water and put some food on you so that you can go back to sleep a little more before going to the beach,” Hunk sing sang, appearing from the still open doors and with a response-less gremlin tugging at his vest.

Shiro took his face out of Lance’s back to look at Hunk, who seemed as fresh as a lettuce. “What the fuck, Hunk?” he asked, making Coran gasp. He had never cursed in front of him.

“Hunk is hangover immune,” Lance informed with a grumble, turning around and indicating Shiro to lie down again on top of his stomach. Shiro’s brain had the consistency of a slushy, so he followed the instruction. He revelled on how warm and soft Lance was before his brain noted that he was shirtless. Now that he noticed, he was also shirtless... And Keith... Ariela was straight up on her underwear, pink lacy bra with bright green undies.

“Is she still alive?” Keith mumbled, not getting away from the woman, while he poked her cheek. Hunk walked towards her with determination and placed a plate of something that looked like brownies in front of her face.

Without even opening her eyes, Ariela rose up from the dead, still cradling Keith to her chest as if he were a baby, and tried to take a piece.

“Did you have fun?” Pidge asked with a small yawn. Shiro smiled, thinking how much she sounded like a kitten.

“As far as I remember, we did,” Lance answered.

Allura groaned and rubbed her face. “I never want to drink with you guys again,” she said, her voice sounding wrecked. Oh, right, Shiro could remember her yelling /so much/ it almost gave him a new headache.

“Come on. It’s six o’clock, so you have time to become decent beings before going to the place I selected for today’s outing,” Coran said, clapping his hands together a couple times and making them all groan because it made their head feel even worse.

Slowly but surely they all got up. To Shiro’s surprise, Keith walked behind Ariela, hugging her waist while looking at the rest of them like a lazy cat. The woman didn’t seem to mind, and in fact started talking to him in whispers. They both shared a few chuckles and then Keith started blushing. When Lance frowned at them, Keith hugged her tighter and hid his face on Ariela’s hair.

“Man, did we really sweat that much? I feel disgusting,” the blue paladin said, feeling how sticky his skin was. Shiro flushed and avoided his gaze. 

“Uhm, no, those were the body shots,” he mumbled. Allura groaned again.

“Oh good lord,” she mumbled before dragging herself out of the lounge.

# . . .

Coran was merciful enough to grant them a really late lunch at 2 in the afternoon, so after their water-abundant breakfast they had all gone to their bedrooms to sleep the rest of their hangover off.

Lance had to shower before going to bed because he felt absolutely disgusting, and he couldn’t avoid thinking about it as he did his night-time routine, trying to trick his skin into thinking he had never stopped being responsible. Shiro had said he was so sticky because of the body shots, but he had remains of saliva and that sweet Altean alcohol mixed with the purple fruit in many..., delicate areas. His neck, his sternum, his thighs, his navel... Yes, he hadn’t gotten drunk in a long while but he didn’t think it would get so out of control. And that wasn’t the only thought that ran wild through his mind. The spit meant that people had taken body shots out of him, and he was certainly sure that Ariela couldn’t be responsible for all of them. This meant that Allura, Shiro or Keith (or all of them) had run their tongues through his skin and he wasn’t able to remember. /And/, as if that wasn’t enough for his troubled and horny mind, someone had /bit him/ in various places.

Ariela usually remembered everything the morning after, no matter how shitfaced she was during the night, so maybe she could remember.

“Wait a second,” he said out loud as he was applying his facemask. “Did /I/ take a body shot out of someone?”

# . . .

They took the yellow lion to the location that Coran had chosen, and the silence was too awkward for Keith. He almost wished he couldn’t remember last night. 

Almost.

Keith always remembered the night before, and while being drunk he didn’t get stupid... He got bolder, and he isn’t quite sure if that is better or worse. That had been why, in a mix of boldness because of the alcohol and jealousy because Lance was grabbing Ariela by the hips and they looked like a couple out of Step Up, he had decided to make Lance jealous... Or at least make him admit that she was his girlfriend so that that little ray of hope guarding his heart could die.

So, putting all that he had learnt about seducing during that chaotic year, he had gotten close to the dancing couple and stuck to the woman’s behind. Quickly enough he had managed to take her away from Lance and now the two of them looked like the couple out of Step Up, but instead of getting jealous the blue paladin cheered on him for a while before going looking for a new dancing partner.

Now instead of being almost grinding with his supposed girlfriend, Lance was almost grinding with Keith’s brother. And the worst thing was that Shiro seemed to be really into it... That fucker needed to spill out some things because no straight dude™ would ever pull a guy against them and thrust their hips like /that/, no matter how much alien alcohol was involved.

Because of that, Keith had decided to raise the stakes and said that it was time for some body shots and licked the acidic juice of the weird fruit Allura had brought from Ariela’s bellybutton, not swallowing his smirk when he pulled away and met Lance’s confused eyes. Of course, his own plan had come back and kicked him in the ass because now everyone wanted to do body shots. They ended up all shirtless and competing over who was bolder.

Allura won when she licked the juice from between Ariela’s breasts, and him and Ariela shared the second place; he had licked it from Lance’s navel (heavenly moment, ten out of ten, would totally recommend) and had even bitten him a little bit while Ariela had directly gone for Shiro’s lower back (he refused to admit that it had practically been his left buttock).

Oh, he had had a hell of a time licking his crush’s skin last night (and having his licked too), but now he couldn’t look the guy in the eyes without getting as red as his lion.

“Are you okay?” Shiro asked him in a whisper when he noticed that he was looking into the void with terrified eyes.

He nodded his head and pointed at Ariela. “I think she’s looking at me funny.” The woman, wearing a magenta bikini and a red pashmina was kind of looking at them from her sit next to Lance, but they couldn’t quite tell because of her sunglasses.

“Yeah, I don’t think she’s actually awake,” Shiro said, waving his arm on her direction. There was no response.

“Hmmh.” Keith bit the inside of his cheek. “Say, Shiro... How much do you remember about last night?” he asked, and the man immediately blushed.

“Oh, God, I was so wasted. I think I started to talk portuguse.” Keith nodded and he groaned. “Look, I don’t remember much. The dance competition, some of the body shots, you going crazy with Hunk and Allura trying to twerk,” he said, letting his hands fall in his thighs with a /flap/ in defeat.

“Do you remember dancing with Lance?” he asked without sugar coating it, and Shiro blushed further, looking away.

“I thought I had dreamt that. Felt like a dream anyways, from how fuzzy the memory is. But yeah, I kind of crossed the line there, didn’t I?”

Keith shook his head. “No, no. I was just asking because you seemed really into it.” He turned to look at Shiro and was surprised to discover that he seemed tense, a weird shadow having fallen upon his face. “You know that you can tell me anything, right? Even more if it is about that kind of thing.”

Shiro shook his head. “Forget it, it’s nothing. I don’t like him or anything, and I’m not into guys,” he said, remarking his last four words with a punctuating gesture of his hands. “But talking about sexual stuff...” Shiro squinted at him and Keith got confused. Maybe Shiro was going to ask him why he had gone so much at Ariela last night, and he wasn’t sure he would be able to explain that.

“What?” he said in a defensive tone.

“Nothing.” Shiro sighed and stopped squinting at him. “Just mad that you didn’t tell your big brother that you had popped the cherry,” he mumbled under his breath.

Shiro was half expecting Keith to go totally red and half expecting his voice go really high and start stammering. He definitely didn’t expect his shoulders go slack and his jaw tense, almost as if he was /ashamed/ and not just embarrassed.

“It was nothing worth talking about,” he said before gulping. /Oh, no/ Shiro thought.

“Keith, what happened?”

“WE’RE HERE!” Coran and Hunk exclaimed at the same time. 

Those who were sleeping woke up scared with the screaming, and confusedly followed the ones that had already gotten up to watch the scenery through the yellow lion’s screen. Before them, a planet with a beautiful turquoise sky and lilac foliage was speeding in front of them, as they neared a waterfall in a clear of what looked like a rain forest. Colourful ricks covered the orange ground, and a few yellow and blue birds were flying over the river basin.

“This is beautiful!” Allura exclaimed. 

“We can have a diving contest!” Lance said, excitement flushing his cheeks.

“I’m not touching the water,” Ariela commented with a pissed off voice, making Lance stare at her like she was the most awful person in the world. “Do you even know how long it took me to straighten my hair with this hangover? Na-ah, Lancey, I’m not getting my hair wet!”

Pidge scratched her chin while inspecting the paladin. “But your hair looks the same than always,” she said, and Ariela blushed.

“That’s because she straightens it almost every day, and she has done treatments to it. She has reeeeaaally curly hair actually,” Lance sneakered, earning a punch to almost the throat by Ariela.

# . . .

Keith was having a hard day. Not only did he have to deal with what had happened last night (what he had done last night), but he also had sober Lance shirtless now. 

He definitely lost in the diving contest because he got distracted, but he wasn’t going to admit that. Besides, Shiro also got pretty distracted; Allura and Ariela were both sun bathing in their swimsuits, not too close to the shore so that they wouldn’t get splashed. Even Keith, and he was like..., super gay, had to admit that they looked gorgeous like that, even whit Allura’s weird bodysuit-with-one-sleeve- pink swimsuit (similar to the one Shiro had borrowed, except Shiro’s covered his entire fucking body, only leaving the feet and the hands naked). But he also caught Shiro sneaking glances at Lance and Hunk while they wrestled playfully on the shallow water.

“Are you sure there’s nothing you want to tell me?” Keith asked, hating how his voice sounded a little deeper. That had been happening a lot lately, always while he was around fucking McClain.

“Just leave it alone, okay?!” Shiro almost shouted, surprising his brother. His face was absolutely red and he immediately turned around and away from their playing teammates.

He let him be, because no one knew better than Keith how awful questioning your sexuality was. Well, maybe Allura, now that he saw her blush and stutter while Ariela braided her hair and sometimes leaned in to whisper in the princess’ ears. Maybe space made everyone seem hotter.

Maybe it was the sex abstinence. Yeah, he was definitely blaming his crush on Lance to the forced chastity they had all been thrown into.

After a great deal of swimming and pranking each other, Coran called them to shore and spread packets of water and plates with the leftover form last night. They ate, calmly talking about the things Allura had seen while visiting Earth and the things she wanted to see.

It was nice not talking about the war for a while. Keith hadn’t noticed how it always seemed to be there, like another person, somehow managing to filter into any of their conversations. But this time it was different, they just talked about movies, Earth and Altean animals and curse words in each person’s native language. 

“It’s not fair, you all have a different native language than English!” Pidge complained, after Lance’s and Ariela’s extremely long list of curse words. 

“Don’t worry, Pidge!! Allura smiled. “Soon enough you will be fluent enough to curse in Altean.”

Keith also got to show off his mad Korean skills, patting himself in the back when he noticed Lance’s eyes glowing with excitement at the new language discovered. Of course he had done the same when Shiro had spoken Japanese, but that didn’t matter. And of course it came back to bite him in the ass when Lance started speaking French.

“When did you learn Korean?” Ariela asked.

“When I was around ten. I asked my foster parents because I wanted to be closer to my heritage and all that bullshit,” he answered, his voice starting to die halfway. Ariela seemed to regret asking that question, and Lance quickly came to rescue.

“I started learning French because it’s my mama’s favourite language!”

Shiro smiled. “Yeah, I also learnt Japanese because of my mom. Dad never really showed any interest of me studying it but mama said that I had to be closer to that side of the family.”

That caught Hunk’s and Ariela’s attention.

“Wait, wait, wait. Didn’t you learn Japanese because you are from Japan?” Hunk asked. Shiro snorted.

“I’m not from Japan, guys,” was Shiro’s answer. Ariela’s eyes shot open.

“Well, I’m sorry, Takashi Shirogane. Please, do share where you are actually from,” she said with a smile of excitement. Shiro licked his teeth without breaking eye contact with her before answering.

“Brazil.”

It was as if a wet blanket had fallen on top of the conversation, and suddenly Ariela and Shiro were in the middle of eye contact duel, and nobody but Lance seemed to understand why.

“What’s going on?” Pidge asked at the same time that Ariela took a really deep breath, her eyes shining with mischief.

“Please don’t,” Shiro said, but it was too late.

“/¡BRASIL, DECIME QUÉ SE SIENTEEEEEE, TENEEEER EN CAASAA A TU PAPAÁ!/” she started singing, throwing her left arm around.

“Argentina and Brazil are like massive football rivals. Hell, they’re like massive rivals about everything,” Lance explained with a chuckle, as he watched Shiro get up and run away while covering his ears and Ariela get up and start chasing him while singing a different song (/Brasilero, brasilero, qué amargado se te veee/)

After the whole country-rivalry ordeal was done, they all settled for a nice nap under the sun, enjoying the warmth that never turned into too much heat, and they only got up when the sun started to set, because Pidge wanted one last diving contest before it was too cold to get in the water again. And because she was the one to organize the last jump, where all the initial paladins were participating, she got to go first.

Hunk was waiting for her to resurge from the water before jumping himself, but a few seconds went by and Pidge didn’t come to the surface, only the bubbles of her breath.

“PIDGE!” he called, but the girl didn’t come through. His screaming called the attention of the three that were left down on the shore, as they looked at him. “PIDGE ISN’T COMING OUT OF THE WATER!”

Suddenly, something (or many things) bursted through the surface of the water before going back in. Were those?

“Tentacles?” Lance asked, a little bit panicked.

“CORAN!” they heard Ariela scream, but the man was already running to jump in the water. After grabbing a big knife from the Altean picnic basket, Ariela did the same, leaving a panicked Allura alone on shore.

“We have to go down and help them,” Shiro said. “Don’t jump in the water, we’re weaker there. We go down like we came up,” and after that he started his descent, with the other three paladins following after him.

Allura was standing too close to the water when they got to her. She was watching with worried eyes the slightly agitated surface of the water.

“Guys, they’re not coming out.”

“I’m going in,” Shiro said, igniting his arms. “Ready your bayards, just in case.” He started trotting to the water, but something coming through it stopped him.

Ariela, gasping and carrying an unconscious Pidge. She was grunting at the effort of swimming to shore, with dead weight and tentacles trying to grab her by the ankles. Shiro reassumed his running and met Ariela halfway. 

“Take her,” the woman said breathlessly. She had cuts through her cheeks and bruises around her throat. Before she could stand up on the debatably shallow water, something yanked her back down.

“ARIE…!” Lance started screaming, but he was cut off but another thin coming out of the water. 

The monster looked like the unwanted child of Java the Hutt and a monster from a tentacle porn anime, and it was grabbing Coran by the neck and trying to do the same to Ariela. She was trying to slash the tentacles away with the kitchen knife, but they would soon gain terrain.

“HUNK, LANCE! USE YOUR BAYARDS ON THE THING! KEITH, TAKE ALLURA AND PIDGE WITH YOU!” Shiro screamed, trying to get them to react. They were all frozen. It was not the same facing a giant monster inside of a destructive robot than by your lonesome.

“CORAN!” the princess called, her voice desperate. The man was still conscious, but barely.

Ariela was screaming at the creature as she slashed at it, and suddenly she let out a pained shout when it gripped her too tight on the waist. “FUCK YOU!” she said, before slamming the knife into the tentacle, thanking any God who was listening that the slimy flesh was thick enough so that only the tiny tip of the knife came through it to cut her own skin.

At the same time, Lance got a lucky shot at the tentacle grabbing Coran. The creature let out an horrible shrieking sound and let go of both of their prey, the two people falling with a splash to the water. Ariela got out of it alone immediately, running to shore with a worrying limp, and Keith ran to get Coran out of there before it got him again.

Shiro cut through a tentacle that got too close with his hand. “HUNK, USE YOUR BAYARD TO DRIVE IT AWAY!” he ordered, and the yellow paladin (that had been waiting to be sure he wouldn’t harm anyone) opened fire without holding back on the creature.

They never knew if the thing retreated into the water or it simply died. They were content enough when it suddenly sunk down, and they sure as hell weren’t going to stay long enough to find out.

# . . .

Pidge and Coran had woken up while they were still fighting the monster (thank God) but Shiro had still pushed them into the healing pods just in case, so it could at least run an analysis. Apparently they needed it, because fifteen minutes had gone by and they still were in there.

“You should get in too,” he told Ariela while pointing at the leg she had limped with, who was dissociating while looking at Pidge’s pod. The woman turned to him a little confused while her brain processed the words. Just like she had foreseen, her hair had already started to dry and therefore curl. Shiro snickered at the thought that she looked more Brazilian than him.

“Oh, no, I’m okay. It just hurt in the moment.” She got up from her seat and started jumping on said leg. “See?” She gave him a sweet smile and then sat down again, her face going dark.

Shiro sighed. “At least let me check the cuts and bruises you got. We don’t want them to get infected,” he said while shaking the small first aid kit he was holding. The woman shrugged.

“If it makes you feel better.”

He sat down next to her and grabbed her left hand. It was all bloody from scrapping at the bottom of the lake searching for the knife she had dropped many times. She had told them that with an angry look, almost disappointed with herself. He started applying sanitizer there and the woman barely took in a deep breath.

He had moved up her arm, almost reaching her shoulder, when she spoke again. “Do you think I’d make a good soldier?”

He halted, suddenly too conscious about how cold the wet gauze he was holding felt. He frowned, getting back to work, before answering with another question. “Why do you ask that?”

“Just answer the question.”

He chanced a look at her, but her eyes were still dug in Pidge’s pod. He had to admit, though, that suddenly she looked older, far from early twenties she must have been. She looked older and very tired.

“Well. I don’t know. I haven’t really seen you fight. But you did react pretty quickly when shit went down,” he said, snorting a little at the end and making her chuckle. A little win then.

“Yeah.” She closed her eyes and took a deep breath when he move on to the puncture wound she had on her waist. This one was deep. “My family, the /de la Torre/, they come down from a military linage, you know?” He just shook his head in silence and kept on working. “My father and his brother fought in the Malvinas. I’ve seen what war does to people.”

“I’m sorry to hear that,” Shiro mumbled. He somehow felt he could relate. Maybe he didn’t have familiars that had fought in an actual war, but he had seen one succumb in his own battles just enough time to make it feel like a war, the enemy being drugs and poverty instead of England.

Ariela turned to him and gave him a sad smile before looking at Pidge again. “It’s okay. They’re still both alive. And I’ve learnt to accept that war is a part of them, whether we like it or not.”

He couldn’t help biting his tongue before saying “But… Don’t you feel you would do…, /give/ anything to make it go away? Erase that part of their lives as if they had never happened?” Ariela lowered her head and he immediately regretted opening his mouth. “I’m sorry…”

“No, it just… It hit too close to home, you know?” she said, turning to him again. “I don’t want Lance… I don’t want any of you nor me to go through what my family went. Hell… I don’t want the fucking bad people to go through what we’re going. War is such a messy thing it doesn’t care where it’s claiming the lives from. If there were anything I could do to just make it all stop…”

Shiro nodded, gently nudging her shoulder to make her turn her back to check there. She did, head already hanging low, and he came across a patch of skin on her small and freckle-covered back filled with thin and faded scars. “What happened?” he asked.

“I went through a window when I was ten, running away from one of my cousins,” she said with fake cheer.

Shiro just nodded and started to work through the cuts there.

# . . .

The next day everyone tried harder to be cheerful. Pidge and Coran were okay already, Ariela only had a few bruises and already closing cuts, and, hey! They had had to fight a tentacle monster that had gone for the girls originally. That deserved some anime jokes. Plus, Ariela had finally resigned her life to Death that morning because her hair straightener had died on her so she had arrived to breakfast with her hair just as curly as Riana, fluffy ringlets framing her “Don’t say a word about this or I’ll slit your throat” face.

She looked like a really angry poodle. And even prettier, if you asked Allura; it kind of added to her bad ass vibe.

“Seriously, kids. I’m going to blame yesterday’s disaster on the hangover. You were pretty slow,” Coran mumbled while they laughed about last day’s events.

“Hey! I did great!” Ariela exclaimed in a high-pitched tone.

“Yeah, Coran. My trainee reacted better than yours. Maybe you’re getting a little rusty as a trainer,” Allura teased with a sly smile, knowing the royal advisor’s weak spot. He went red almost instantly.

“They were alcohol-dumb, Allura. Besides, do I need to remind you that it was Hunk who killed the monster?” he attacked back.

“I know, I know. I was just saying that, in terms of fighting instinct, Ariela was way ahead. Next thing we know, she’ll be beating Shiro.”

The black paladin chocked on his drink and let put an ugly snorting laugh before coughing, and suddenly Ariela looked ready to murder. “What’s so funny, Shiro? Thought of a joke you want to share with the rest?” she asked, the consonants sounding too strong for anyone in her range of sight to feel comfortable.

“No, no, it’s just…” Shiro pointed at her and then at himself, comparing their sizes. “Not to insult you or anything, but you /are/ kind of tiny, Ariela.” 

“Uhhhhh, he has a death wish,” Lance murmured, and if it weren’t because Ariela’s eyes set on fire, the rest of the crew would have laughed.

“You’re saying that because I’m short I wouldn’t be able to beat you?” she asked.

Shiro sensed her anger a little bit too late and started rubbing at his neck a little uncomfortably. “Well, the odds aren’t exactly stacked on your favour. I could literally pick you up and throw you across the room.”

“Fucking fight me.”

Silence fell.

“I’m sorry what?” Shiro asked.

“You heard me well enough, captain. Prove that you can beat me so easily. Fight. Me.”

Hunk adjusted himself on his chair and Lance shrugged, mentally saying fuck it. “If she gets to fight Shiro, I get to fight Shiro.” Their leader turned to him with a surprised look that also had a bit of “what the hell did I do to you?” vibe to it. Lance shrugged again. “I’ve haven’t practiced body combat with you ever since I started training with Coran. I want to see what I’m capable of.”

“If everybody is going to fight, I also want to fight!” Pidge exclaimed.

“Yeah, me too!” Keith seconded.

“Guys, guys, I think you’re getting a little bit carried away,” Hunk started, but he was cut off by Allura.

“What do you say, Coran? A crash sparring contest. Let’s see whose trainee is the best.”

“Why stop at trainees? I haven’t reminded you of who’s the teacher in a long while,” Coran said with a chill voice, and all the paladins went “uhhhhhh”.

“That’s /quiznacking/ it,” Allura mumbled.

# . . .

Half an hour later, they were all standing on the training deck, body suits zipped up and practice staffs on their hands. Coran was standing in front of them with a little hologram of the contest fights.

“I selected the first opponents based on a matter of body strength. That’s why the first round will be: Ariela vs. Pidge, Shiro vs. Hunk, Lance vs. Keith, and Allura vs. me,” the man explained.

Hunk raised his hand. “Emm, you see, Coran, I didn’t tease anyone so I don’t think I deserve to get my ass beat,” he said.

“Well too bad. We need you because we’d be an odd number without you. If you don’t want to fight, let Shiro win,” Allura said, voice harsh. She seemed eager to get on the training mat and fight Coran.

“What? No, I don’t want to just give up!” he complained. 

“Then start thinking of a strategy. Pidge, Ariela, you’re up.”

That fight lasted less than forty seconds. In five simple moves, Ariela managed to take Pidge’s staff from her hands and hold her down to the floor in a wrestling hold. Shiro kind of regretted that Pidge went down so quickly; he had missed his chance of actually seeing Ariela’s fighting style.

Next up, it was him and Hunk. And that was, surprisingly, a long fight. Shiro had experience fighting enemies bigger than him, but he wasn’t counting on Hunk also being considerably stronger than him. It appears that, under all that fluff, there was quite a bit of muscle. He wasn’t also counting on the fact that Hunk had been training with him and therefore knew his classic moves. The yellow paladin knew what to expect, and was impressingly good at predicting and blocking Shiro’s attacks. But he wasn’t as good when it came to attacking, so eventually he tired out and Shiro found the perfect window to claim his victory.

Now, Keith’s and Lance’s was definitely something special. Keith definitely was not going down like Pidge, so everyone knew they would get to see what Lance and Coran had been working on this last month or so. The result was a battle that seemed to have no end, because they were both equals. Keith’s style was more aggressive and raw; he depended on his strength too much. Lance, on the other hand, wasn’t as strong, so he had to take every opportunity he saw, and caught on quite quickly on how to use Keith’s own attacks to make him lose his balance and get a clean strike. The red paladin was quite flustered when he discovered that his plans of impressing Lance by winning him bright and breezy had been foiled, and that may or may not have played its important plan in Lance finally sweeping Keith off the floor and immediately leaping over him, staff pressing against the red paladin’s throat as a smug grin grew on the blue paladin’s face.

Everyone was shocked.

And then it was the turn of Allura’s and Coran’s fight. It looked like something out of Clash of the Titans. They were both equally strong and equally aggressive. It was a neat and simple, yet effective fighting style, a little bit different from Lance’s. It was also ridiculously fast. They all struggled to keep up with it, only the sounds of the staffs crashing and the effort grunts the two of them were letting out giving them a clue of who was winning. And, after what seemed ages, Coran managed to make Allura trip and put the tip of his staff against her heart.

“I shock you and boom, you’re dead,” he said, barely containing his smile. Allura seemed really pissed for a few seconds, but then a bright smile broke through.

“I see you haven’t lost your touch,” she said, grabbing the hand he offered her to get up. “Well, are you guys ready for round two?” 

In response, Ariela walked to the mats while twirling her staff with expertise, before turning to look at Shiro nonchalantly. “I don’t know. Are you ready?” she asked him. Shiro snorted and stood in front of her. 

“Ready? Go!” Hunk said. Now that he knew he wouldn’t be fighting any more, he was quite giddy to see how things turned out.

Shiro charged first, pretending to go for the woman’s staff and going for her feet at the last second. Ariela jumped without wasting a second and even landed on top of Shiro’s staff, giving him a good strike on his metal arm, making him groan at the impact. 

He pulled up the staff, managing to lift it along Ariela, who smugly did a back flip and landed on her feet with a smile, ready to block Shiro’s second strike and slide under him to strike him on the back and try to trip him, but he managed to move out of the way on the last second. She was too fast.

“Okay, maybe I shouldn’t have been so smug,” Shiro admitted, and Ariela laughed at the air before making a combo of four strikes that Shiro managed to block. He may have been used to fighting someone considerably bigger, but being on the other side was something new.

His guard low, he left his staff horizontally, and Ariela took the chance to hit it from under to take it off of his hands, but he was able not to lose his grip and diverted the strike that was directed to his chest towards his stomach. /Oh, if she wants to play dirty, dirty she’ll get/.

Grinning, he made a grab for the woman’s staff and pulled, yanking her towards him. Ariela went crashing against him with a yelp and he shouldered her to the floor. She fell without her staff and looked at him really angry while he proudly held it on top of her.

“That was playing dirty!” she yelled, making Keith laugh on the side lines.

“The Galra don’t play nice,” he chuckled, and just when he thought she was going to give up, Ariela’s eyes ignited and she kicked him on the right shin, making him yell. “What the fuck?” She jumped at him and sent him crashing down to the mats. When he jumped at his neck, he grabbed her and sent her flying across the floor. They both got up quickly, and Shiro was barely able to block the round house kick she directed straight to his face.

“Is she always like that?” Coran asked, and both Lance and Allura nodded. 

“JESUS,” Shiro exclaimed when Ariela literally growled and went for his stomach. By instinct he gripped the bun that she had done on top of her head and accidentally destroyed it, curls falling down her face.

“Okay, that’s just a dick move,” she said when he held her from behind, arms sticking to her body. She answered that move by stomping down on his foot, and Shiro just let himself fall to the floor, dragging her down with him. Falling on top of her, his weight was his best ally, and he just let her try to wiggle out from under him for a few seconds until Coran declared he had won.

“Are you okay?” he asked after rolling off of her. Ariela just blew the strands of hair sticking to her face off and held her chin high.

“You cheated. Bad. I’m not counting that as an official defeat.” And with that she left the mats.” 

“Hey! For the record, you did really well! I thought you had me for a second there he said as he trotted behind her.

Coran patted Lance on the shoulder.

“Ready to be destroyed?” he asked his trainee, and Lance smirked.

“I wouldn’t be so confident old man,” he laughed.

Hunk gave the queue and they started circling each other, waiting for the other to attack. Lance decided to go for it after a few seconds, noticing that Coran wasn’t going to leave his defense. Their staffs struck and they crossed looks. That was when it actually began. Coran changed fighting styles; the simple and aggressive became the complicated and sneaky, but it was obvious to the sight that Lance felt more comfortable with this style, almost as if Coran had just started learning a choreography Lance had been practicing for years. Coran’s superior strength didn’t play an important part in this type of fight. 

Still, they were all a little surprised when Lance pinned Coran to a wall with the tip of his staff pressed against his heart.

“I shock you and boom, you’re dead,” he mocked, a giddy smile on his lips and a flame lighting his eyes. He had defeated Keith and Coran? He felt like he could take on Zarkon with a hand tied behind his back.

“Mhm,” Coran hummed, twirling his mustache with a happy smirk. “I’ve taught you well.”

“Oh my God. What if Lance wins Shiro?” Hunk asked excitedly. Pidge snorted.

“Please, have you seen Shiro?”

“No, no,” Allura shut her up with a surprised but pleased expression. “He could actually win.”

“AVANGE MY DEATH, LANCE!” Ariela screamed, throwing her fists up on the air.

/Fuck yeah, my paladin is going to destroy yours/ Blue said to Black, a bubble of pride threatening to burst in her chest.

/Oh, come one. Even the panther’s paladin wasn’t able to defeat Shiro/ Black replied with a calm tone, keeping the hot blood running through her to herself. She wanted Shiro to win so desperately.

/Psh. He won because he’s a fucking cheat. Ariela could beat him fair and square, and she will once she stoops down to his level/ the panther rumbled.

/What’s wrong, Black? Afraid that Lance might win over your mighty hero?/ Red laughed. She was actually rooting for Lance, just like Keith, although her paladin was trying to lie to himself saying that he wanted his brother to win. Ignoring the fire that Allura looking so hung up on Lance and the beads of sweat going down Lance’s neck were causing was a little bit difficult, but he wanted to think he was managing so far.

“I think it’s only fair that we let Lance rest for a while. Shiro had a chance, after all,” Coran said.

/Poor little thing, he needs a break/ Black cooed, making Blue growl.

/Shut up! You’re not letting me concentrate!/ Gold exclaimed.

As soon as Lance had come close to the rest of the crew, Ariela grabbed him and dragged him away to start whispering about how to win Shiro. He’s not used to close range battle without being able to use his arm was one of the things she told him.

“So? Do you have any advice on taking Lance down?” Shiro asked Keith, while his brother looked at the blue paladin toweling himself with a frown. “Keith?”

“So many advices,” he murmured, before shutting up again.

Shiro really couldn’t believe that Keith was like this. Did he really not care that Shiro could clearly see how he was ogling Lance or did he not realize he was ogling Lance in the first place?

“Are you ready, big guy?” Lance asked with a wicked grin on his face. Shiro smiled and patted him on the shoulder, before walking next to him to the mats.

“Beat his ass, baby!” Ariela cheered, making Keith side-eye her. Seriously? Baby?

“Ready. Go!” Hunk screamed, and Shiro jumped head first towards Lance. Who moved away, but he wasn’t fast enough to strike him like he had done with Keith, and Shiro didn’t lose his balance nearly as easily as the red paladin.

It was… a long fight. By the time it finished, both Lance and Shiro were breathless, body complaining about what they were being put through. Their brains were also tired, so measuring distances and strength was becoming an issue. Shiro hadn’t meant to hurt Lance when he stroke, aiming for the head, knowing that the boy would be able to block it because the move was slow. 

And Lance blocked it.

It’s just that Shiro broke his staff in half with an awful cracking sound.

“What the fuck?” Hunk asked as Lance stared at the two pieces of metal, each in one hand.

“Hmm, I guess they’re really old and rusty,” Coran said nonchalantly, ignoring the fact that that blow could have killed Lance.

“It’s not safe to continue,” Allura announced, and Shiro immediately lost his fighting stance, but Lance threw the halves of the staff out of the mats and rose up his fists.

“I already came this far, not stopping now,” he said with the same wicked smile he had had at the beginning, and Keith had to admit that that did turn him on. Seeing Lance so riled up was making him want to eject himself into space… Well, he wanted to do other things, but there was no way he could go and tell Lance /that/.

“Lol, RIP Lance,” Pidge said when Shiro threw his own staff away and put his fists up. Again, he was the first one to charge. Lance surprised him by just diverting his arm instead of completely moving away, and he struck Shiro with his open palm on his ear, making him go dizzy. Next thing he knew, he was being struck on the neck, kicked on the back of the knee, and Lance was doing a move that ended with him smacking Shiro’s body against the mat and holding him there.

Silence fell and a pregnant pause settled in the room, the only sounds being the labored breathings of the two paladins. Lance’s eyes were open wide in shock and what he had just managed; he had been practicing that move with Coran for what felt like ages and it only half worked half of the time.

Coran threw his fists in the air. “I TAUGHT HIM THAT!” he yelled, breaking the silence as he ran to pick up Lance from the mats. The cheerings from Ariela, Hunk and Allura began immediately after, while the rest of the crew remained on a deadly silence, Pidge and Shiro because of the shock, Keith because other things.

“Are you okay?” Lance asked Shiro when he saw the man wasn’t getting up, face still shocked. Shiro met his eyes and suddenly a ridiculously wide smile spread on his face.

“Are you kidding me? Lance, I’m great! You did amazing! How the hell did you do that?” he asked in return, slowly starting to sit up.

/HE WON SO HARD I FEEL LIKE YOU OWE ME SOMETHING!/ Blue started yelling and Black couldn’t avoid rolling her eyes, just like the panther.

/You’re all so noisy. You’re giving me a headache/ he complained, and Gold made a rumbling sound that resembled laughter.

/Welcome to my world/.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -BRASIL DECIME QUÉ SE SIENTE TENER EN CASA A TU PAPÁ: Brazil, tell me how it feels to have your dad at home. (TN: Brazil and Argentina have a really big rivalry when it comes to football, and the Argentinian fans invented a song for the 2014 Worldcup. Everytime they see a Brazilian, they start to sing it. It's like a joke between countries) Link to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IOGFENyGJM
> 
> Well, so, what could I say to you? I've dissappeared for a long time now, don't worry, I've always been alive and "well". Many things happened; I finished highschool, got into my college of choice, found a spiritual path, etc etc. I also realized that I am really feedback driven, and the fact that the fic wasn't getting any new Kudos or Comments kind of made me abandon it.
> 
> Today at six in the morning I went into my AO3 profile to check my bookmarks for a specific fic and found that I had 5 unread messages on my Inbox. All comments on this novel. I literally got up and started writing and editing. This chapter was only writen to the part where they're talking in the yellow lion, and I finished the rest today.
> 
> I guess what I'm tryng to say is that feedback is super important, even if it is just a tiny theory of what's going to happen or comment of how certain part made you lenny face, it fills me with determination (like in Undertale), so please please pretty please comment. 
> 
>  
> 
> Kisses. <3


	7. 5: It's like we're on the edge right now. I wish that I could say I'm proud.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally going to cover from the beggining to that thing that happened with Keith after they left Menosfor, for thos who read the previous version, but I hadn't even gotten to the day of the battle and the chapter was already 12k, so I decided to cut it there.

Their little weekend finished with them well rested and their spirits ridiculously high, so they didn’t moan that much when Allura announced it was time to get back to work. They eased into it though, practicing and discussing about restarting missions.

“I wouldn’t put you out in the field just yet,” Allura had started while they were all gathered on the control deck. With a flick of her wrist, a holographic map came up in front of her, and a few spots glimmered in orange. “We’re in a quadrant abandoned by Galra because they exploited every planet here. They had to leave in haste because the planets they had conquered were not in livable conditions anymore.”

“So you want us to…?” Hunk started.

“Their posts were left intact. I’m saying we should check them out, see if there’s anything to raid or info to collect. Pidge could even get her hands on some old but intact tech.”

So that was what they had been doing, getting Ariela used to participate in missions by making her one the designated driver that took them in and out of the posts, and explaining what the procedure would be if they were in an actual populated place. 

It had gone well… At least during the first days. Allura was right when saying that they left in a haste, because almost every supply had been left behind. There many weapons, clothes, digital files filled with information and communication devices that Pidge had quickly put her hands on. There were also many materials that the castle needed, and although they reached a point where they already had enough to make all the fixes and upgrades, Coran always said that having to spare was always better than regretting not having taken it on the first place. The only bad thing was that the posts were a couple thousand years old, so the tech was a little bit antiquate (we better not talk about the information), but it still was something to work on.

“It looks like they have standard blueprints for posts in planets that don’t need specific accommodations,” Lance murmured, as they turned right and reached the supply area, just like Hunk had predicted. It had been like that on the five posts they had raided on the last three days. 

“This is actually great. Knowing their basic layout could help if we’re stuck without Pidge’s maps sometime,” Shiro said, watching with a smile as the girl ran to the control area to open all doors for them to snoop around.

“Even if their layouts were changed, we are actually starting to recognize their language,” Ariela said. Keith’s head perked up.

“Are we?”

The woman shrugged and then pointed at the roof, letting them see a small fluorescent light with little inscriptions all across it. “Those indicate the way to different places. Those three symbols mean supplies, and the tube stops on top of the controls, which means that we arrived at the supply bay,” she explained.

“How do you know that means supplies?” Shiro asked with an amazed smile. Although Ariela had been quite nervous throughout their first raids and had been completely silent and rigid, she was slowly starting to loosen up and making her input.

“Those three symbols repeat over and over, so I guessed they made one word that was repeated over and over, and every time we followed this symbol we reached the supply bay.”

Lance snorted as he got near to high five his sister and then hip-bump her. “That’s it Ari, show them I wasn’t wrong by bringing you here,” he chuckled out, making Ariela show him the bird.

There was a swishing sound and a door opened up at the same time that Pidge gasped. Shiro signaled Keith and Ariela to go with him while Lance ran to the girl to check out what had surprised her.

“What is it, Pidge-Podge?” he asked, giving a final look to the trio as they disappeared beyond the dark hallway.

“First, don’t call me that,” the girl answered, the death-glare that she would be giving him if she weren’t busy with the program clear on her voice. “Second, this is actually a newer version. This base was probably updated before they abandoned it. We will probably find newer tech and intel here,” she explained.

Hunk got closer to her, watching her program slowly work. “How different ‘s it from the old ones?”

Pidge shook her head. “I think a little bit more than normal. Maybe we skipped a few versions. The security is much better in this than the others, and the data base is more intricately designed. They have space for many more things. The previous posts had only inside information, but here there are things about the quadrant and even the whole empire.”

“I’m going to check out the armory and see if I can find anything new there too,” Lance announced before he started leaving.

He had a foot on the metallic threshold that would take him back when all the lights flared red. The door slammed closed on him, almost crashing his left foot, and alarms started blaring. 

“WHAT THE FUCK, PIDGE?” he yelled, as the girl started tapping away on her screen.

“I’m sorry. I am so used to the old program that I let my guard down. Just give me a minute,” she explained.

There was a slamming sound from the door where the other three paladins had gone through. Muffled screams could be heard and then another bang. Shiro didn’t think he had a minute. The second the lights had turned red, his face had transformed in the epitome of panic, body freezing in an instant, worrying his teammates.

Now, he was yelling curses between sobs, as he desperately tried to get out while Keith and Ariela watched with horror.

“NO, NO, NO!” he screamed, his shoulder crashing against the door and sending a hot lightning of pain through his body. Tears streaming down his face, he fell on his knees to the floor and scrambled to the farthest corner in haste. “I can’t let them get me again, I can’t go back. No, no, no.”

“Shiro!” Keith called as he got closer to the man, but the second he was on the impact zone, the man kicked him away and stuck himself to the wall.

“NO, DON’T TOUCH ME!” he yelled, covering his eyes and making himself into a tiny ball. Ariela ran to help Keith up, and managed to catch a few words that Shiro was murmuring over the blaring of the alarms. “…take me back…Sendak’s hands…kill myself…”

A hesitant hand tugged at her undersuit and she turned to see Keith looking at their leader with worried eyes. “What’s wrong with him?”

In that moment someone slammed against the door from the other side, making Shiro look at it the same way a child would look at their closet door opening by itself in the middle of the night. Only a monster worse than the devil himself could come out of there.

They could hear Hunk demanding Pidge to open the door immediately and the girl screaming back about new algorithms.

“His PTSD kicked in. I don’t know if it’s a flashback or just a panic attack,” she explained, giving Keith’s had a comforting squeeze, as she prepared to get near their leader. “Shiro?” she asked with the softest voice she could manage.

The man flinched and squeezed himself into a smaller ball, but his eyes didn’t move away from the banging door.

“Keith,” Ariela called, voice still soft. “Go and tell Hunk to stop doing that.” It took a few seconds for the red paladin to catch her words, but then he was scrambling to get up and running towards the door. “Shiro, look at me, please.”

He shook his head.

“They’re trying to get in. They’re taking me away again. They’re taking all of us,” he sobbed, memories of when the Galra had captured Allura because of him flooding in.

“They won’t take us anywhere, Shiro. You’re safe. There are no Galra here.”

“THEN WHY DID THE ALARMS START BLARING? THEY KNOW I’M HERE! THEY KNOW AND THEY’RE COMING FOR ME!” he screamed, and Ariela was afraid for a second. He looked so out of himself…, so feral. Like a caged animal.

“They aren’t, Shiro. Pidge messed up some code and the security activated itself, but there is no one left here but us,” she said, slowly crawling closer to him, taking advantage that he had all his attention on the door, where Keith was talking to Hunk. He had stopped the slamming.

Ariela reached the wall and sat next to Shiro, managing to get him to look at her for a few seconds. “We’re safe, Shiro. You were just startled. Do you notice how fast you’re breathing?” she asked, and Shiro seemed to start panting louder. “It’s just panic, the natural response to this,” she slowly laid a hand on his knee. “Please look at me, Shiro.”

“They’re right outside.”

“Hunk’s outside. He is worried about you, so he was trying to get in. He knows how you react sometimes. Remember that we talked about PTSD?” she asked, and the man finally turned towards her. “This is just your syndrome acting up. There’s no real danger.”

A few tears rolled through his face and Shiro’s jaw started trembling. “But the Galra…”

“… are not here,” she finished for him, sneaking an arm through his shoulders. “Just cover your ears and listen to your breathing, Shiro. Forget about the alarms. You can close your eyes if it makes you feel better.”

The man covered his ears and even leaned in on the woman’s embrace, but he seemed to panic again. “I won’t be able to see them come if I close my eyes.”

“We’re here with you, Shiro. We wouldn’t let anyone touch a single hair on your head,” she reassured him, but he still didn’t close his eyes. 

The alarm continued to blare for a few minutes and by the end of it Shiro was starting to lose it again. He had managed to slow down his breathing a little bit, but as time went by and they were in the same situation he started convincing himself that he was in fact going to be captured again.

Ariela was trying to interrupt his panicked rambling again, trying to reassure him when the alarms stopped blaring and the lights dimmed. Shiro sat up straight, before letting out a relieved cry and started sobbing like a man whose life had been spared, tears streaming down as fast as a river and his whole body shaking.

The doors swished open and Hunk, Lance and Pidge rushed through, immediately spotting their sobbing leader and trying to get to him, but Shiro tried to kick them away again.

“DON’T” he yelled, and he was using his commanding voice, the same that yelled orders when they were fighting. The paladins stopped dead on their tracks, looking confused. “GET OUT, NOW”

They stayed there, and before Shiro could yell at them again, Ariela sent them away with furious gestures of her hand.

They left the door open, and though Keith seemed hesitant to leave, he kept going when he saw the woman hug Shiro again. He didn’t catch him pushing her away.

“You have to get out too,” he growled, but Ariela just put a hand on her shoulder. He slapped it away.

“I’m not leaving you, Shiro.”

“I’m your leader!”

She shook her head. “You are not. You are just a teammate to me.” Shiro looked up at her with desperate eyes. “I know you must hate someone seeing you like this, but you can’t be alone now, Shiro. I know how awful it is to be alone.”

He just looked at her, frozen and out of words, for a few seconds, before another sob racked through his body and he finally leaned into her, face buried on her chest. “I’m too fucked up,” he managed to get out, and Ariela just started caressing his hair.

“You are not.”

# . . .

Pidge had to call Allura and ask her to pick them up with a pod because Shiro didn’t want to leave with them and Ariela wasn’t leaving Shiro alone. When Coran appeared and they explained what had happened to him as they loaded things up, the man’s expression turned somber.

They had all been shocked to see Shiro like that. Except Hunk. The only thing he had felt was desperation as the image of Shiro falling off the bridge replayed in his brain over and over again, thinking how the man was going to hurt himself if he wasn’t there with him. He supposed that was how mothers felt when someone hurt their babies or something. Not that he wanted to baby Shiro, but… 

Keith hadn’t talked. He seemed to have shut down, doing what they told him in silence, and leaving to sit somberly on the lounge when they finished getting everything out of the pod. Lance and Pidge were somewhat similar, but more responsive, only Pidge was feeling extremely guilty. It had been her mistake that had caused that reaction on Shiro.

The sun had already hidden behind the horizon by the time they got back. Everyone had opted to dine on their bedrooms, so Shiro and Ariela didn’t encounter anyone on their way back.

The man had cried like one only saw on drama movies for what had seemed like hours, while Ariela tried to reassure him that it was fine, that /he/ was fine. Then he had dissociated for an hour or so, and then he had been struck with an awful headache.

The doors of his bedroom opened when he pressed the pad, and he turned to the woman behind him.

“What happened today…” he started, trying to ignore the way his whole body ached, his head and his eyes just a little more than the rest.

“I won’t talk about it with anyone,” the woman quickly stated, but by her face Shiro could tell she was about to say something he wouldn’t like. “But we need to talk about it, Shiro. At least the two of us.”

He sighed. “Listen, Ariela… I know you only mean well, but we’re in the middle of a war. I’m the only thing these kids have and I can’t allow myself to be weak.”

“Dedicating time to heal yourself is not weakness, Shiro… Neither is asking for help.”

“Just drop it,” he growled out before closing his door and jumping straight to the bed, trying to hide away from the world under the covers.

He had been so out of control… He had kicked Keith, shoved and slapped Ariela… He had wailed like a little kid whose pet had just died. It was as if he had stopped being a twenty fo… Right, his birthday had gone by a few months ago. It was as if he had stopped being a twenty-five-year-old man for all that time. 

Shame was seeping into his blood as if it was poison, making him want to throw up.

His stomach grumbled angrily, telling him that he needed to eat, but he just couldn’t. He normally couldn’t eat when they weren’t all sitting on the table; he wasn’t going to be able to eat alone in his room after what had happened without having another panic attack.

He hadn’t really thought about how the Galra had managed to fuck up not only his sleeping but his eating habits too. Even though he knew that no one would send him to the wiping room if he ate out of place or time, or more than he should, his body wouldn’t let him. If any prisoner dared to eat when the guards hadn’t given permission, they would get punished. Even if you had food in front of you and you hadn’t eaten for days, you had to wait until everyone had received their share and then the guards orders. Or you got new scars on your arms.

Even the idea of grabbing something quick to eat seemed to make his stomach churn right now. The worst thing was that, when he was able to eat, he ate so much that he ended up throwing up most of it anyway. His mind kept telling him that he didn’t know when his next meal would be, even thought they had scheduled meal times, so he had to shove up everything he could.

He looked at the closed door and wondered how much Ariela would be able to help him if he said yes, but then he shook his head and tried to fall asleep.

# . . .

When Hunk had decided to tell Ariela about how he had been finding Shiro in middle of what he had described “trances”, the woman had noticed that his whole body screamed true worry, but she would have never imagined that Shiro was so bad. And the yellow paladin had refused to describe the experiences, so she couldn’t have the right idea.

The man was crumbling down, and he seemed totally set on not getting help. Apparently, her uncle had been just like that, but in the ending there had been something that had made him snap out of it and realize that he needed help and that /getting help is perfectly fine/.

He always told her “You were born to help people like me, little monkey”, and Ariela didn’t want to let him down, but Shiro was making it really difficult.

She understood that he felt he needed to be the image of the perfect and totally okay leader in front of the younger paladins. Even if some of them were getting to their twenties, Lance already being there…

“OH, MY GOD!” Ariela almost yelled, hands flying to disappear under her thick hair. “I forgot about Lance’s birthday.”

Grabbing her phone from the little shelf like thing that was built on the wall inside the bed, Ariela ran up to check the calendar, and realized that not only had she forgotten about her little brother’s birthday, she had forgotten Big Time™. If her math wasn’t wrong (and she wasn’t really bad at it), he had turned twenty one a few weeks before they picked her up.

All Shiro thoughts pushed aside, Ariela was a woman with a mission. Said mission involved sneaking into the place she had seen Coran take the alcoholic beverages from, grab a bottle of something fancy, and ran to Lance to beg for forgiveness and get wasted together. 

Of course, something had to interrupt her mission.

The door hadn’t even finished opening by the time she bursted out of her room like a rocket, so she hadn’t had time to see Keith standing there, awkwardly playing with the zipper of his jacket.

They crashed foreheads first, an ugly and painful sound making them wince before they felt the pain coming, both beginning to curse.

“Agh, shit,” Keith said as he righted his posture, right hand on top of the quickly reddening skin and eyes looking at Ariela with anger, but it quickly dissipated. “I need to talk to you,” he said.

“I guessed by the you standing in front of my door awkwardly,” she murmured, but then shot him a smile and invited him in, telling herself that she would look for the late birthday gift after this. “What is it?” she asked, even if she already had an idea.

Keith sat down on the floor, back resting against the wall in front of the bed, just like he would do when he was a special guest on Ariela’s and Hunk’s not-so-secret tea parties, because he knew, the mice knew, and Hunk had a feeling that Coran also knew.

After fidgeting with his zipper for a few seconds, picking his words, he opened his mouth to speak. “Shiro wasn’t like this, you know?” he asked, puzzling the woman.

“You mean that he didn’t use to have these attacks?” she asked, but the man shook his head.

His right hand hid inside the pocket of his jacket, and next thing she knew, he was offering him a photograph. “He used to be full of life. He was kind of a goofball, like Lance.” Ariela took the offered picture and looked at it. With Garrison uniforms, Keith and Shiro were crouching each at one of Matthew Holt’s sides, if she could say by the way he was (A FUCKING CLONE) so similar to his sister. Said boy was sleeping and his face was covered in doodles, offensive phrases and “Shiro was here”s. Their so righteous leader was holding a sharpie marker and smiling like the devil.

Ariela snorted and offered the picture back to Keith, but he rejected it. “He had this one girlfriend, Lila… He was so in love that he was actually looking for wedding rings before going to Kerberos. He had planned the whole proposal and everything,” he told her with a grim expression.

“You don’t sound happy about it.”

“Yeah, because she was a fucking bitch!” he almost yelled, an Ariela’s eyebrows shot up with the surprise. “Shiro never dared give me details because he knew I would burn her house down, but I figured out many things. She was a fucking sexist, and she made Shiro start changing bits and pieces of his personality because they were “too feminine” for a guy and stuff like that. She was sucking the life out of him.”

Ariela sat down next to Keith with a huff, looking at the ceiling. “That was an abusive relationship. How long where they together?” she asked.

“A little more than three years.” Ariela hissed. “Yeah. He was too in love to see how much of an harpy she was.”

After that, silence fell, and Ariela didn’t know what to say. Keith didn’t look like he was going to keep talking, but at the same time she couldn’t quite understand the reason he had given him all this information.

“Why are you telling me this?” she asked in a whisper, and Keith turned to her with worried eyes.

“I accidentally heard your conversation with Shiro. I figured that maybe having the real reason why he doesn’t want help would help you understand him better, and end up helping him.” Keith let out a frustrated sigh in the middle, rubbing his face. “He thinks that he needs to be a /macho/ man that doesn’t get help from anyone. Feelings and fears are for pussys and all that bullshit. I don’t think he even realizes how internalized he has her bullshit”

Ariela frowned. “You know this because he told you or you’re assuming it?” she asked.

Keith sighed again. He was starting to lose his patience. “I’ve known Shiro ever since I was eleven years old. We know each other like the palms of our hands, Ariela. I can read him like an open book.” He let his head smack against the wall again. “Besides, he was like this before he had the excuse of having to be strong for us. He’s been like this since he met her.”

He got up with a groan, cleaning his trousers as if there was even a speck of dust on the floor. “Lance mentioned that you’re a psychologist while we were unloading the pod, that you could help him.”

“Yeah, Hunk had already told me…”

“I know,” he cut her short. “I just came here to make sure that you won’t give up on him now that you know how big of a challenge it might be.”

Ariela got up too, after all she still had a mission, but also because she still had the photo on her right hand.

“I won’t give up on him, Keith. He might not be like a brother to me, but he’s still a teammate. I care about him,” she said, offering the photograph to its owner again, for it to be rejected again.

“Keep it, so you have a reference of how you have to give him back to me,” he said, before opening the door and power walking to his room.

Ariela wanted to go behind him and explain that there would always be a part of Shiro that would remember those awful things. Therapy wasn’t traveling back in time and undoing all of the events that had caused the PTSD, suddenly you had a completely healed person in front of you. It was a process that could as well never end…

But she let him have that silver of hope that, in a few weeks, Shiro would be back to run around laughing and pranking his teammates.

# . . .

It took a while for Shiro to recover from having an attack in front of all the paladins. At the beginning he didn’t even want to leave his room, and the other five would go on the raids without him, Allura telling them to take this as an opportunity to practice their leading skills, so they took turns on being Shiro the Hero.

Coran, only God knows how powerful that man is, did or said something to Shiro that had him getting out of his room after a whole week of confinement. 

They had all agreed on not talking about what had happened unless Shiro mentioned it, which they all knew he wouldn’t do, but the man was putting them through hard tests. When he came out of his room he looked as if he had been sick all week; he was thinner, had dark bags under his eyes and his skin looked unhealthy.

They had all had frozen when he had walked into breakfast without saying a word, and no one really knew what to say, until Lance suddenly saved them all.

“Sheesh, Shiro. Have you seen your skin? You’re going to have a break out any minute now!” he had complained as if that personally offended him. Shiro had turned to look at him with a frown and confused eyes. “I can’t have such a pretty face going to waste like this. Today we’re having a spa treatment day and we’re also trimming your fringe, soon enough you won’t be able to see.”

Hunk was about to murder his best friend, and Keith was too shocked to react. How could he talk like that to the man? He had just gotten out of being locked up in his bedroom because of shame!

Surprisingly, Shiro blushed. “I don’t know, Lance. Face-masks and that kind of stuff aren’t really my thing,” he had said, scratching his neck awkwardly.

“Oh, come on! We need to keep you in your sharpest looks for the rescued ladies! In middle of all this war they need some eye candy, and even though I’m a huge beauty myself, I would think in the bast universe there are some beings that prefer white skin and buffness over caramel and thinness.”

Shiro let down his gaze, blush deepening, and Lance took the opportunity to elbow Allura and Ariela, who in response elbowed Keith and Hunk.

“Uh, yeah,” Hunk said eloquently. “We could all have a spa afternoon. My skin is getting oily from all the…”

“FOOD GOO!” Keith contributed.

“Yes, from all the food goo.”

“Oh, paladins! You have to show me what this spa thing you are talking about is. It sounds wonderful!” Allura said, over-acting the royal excitement in her voice a little bit, but it was good still.

So, that afternoon after practice (in which Shiro tired out too soon and they all got worried again), they hit the showers, had a tea party, and proceeded to meet Lance on a hallway.

“As you are going to see now, I explored some parts of the Castle during our firsts days here, until I found these beauty.” And proceeded to open the doors to what looked like an actual spa but too fancy for any of them to ever walk in.

“Oh, yeah. This is the polishing room,” Allura said nonchalantly. When she noticed the questioning looks, she explained, “Northern Altean women cared only about their looks, so they insisted on every Castle in which they travelled to have a room prepared for their beauty routines.”

“Lucky for us they were a pain in the ass, because now we can have fun,” Pidge said, pushing through Lance and running to what looked like a Jacuzzi. “HELL YEAH, BABY!”

And that was the story of how they all ended up with Lance coaching them through their personalized beauty routines. He had to take special care with Keith and Pidge. The teenage girl’s skin was a mess, and Keith’s hair was utterly damaged by the desert sun, and his skin also had a few stains, though they were a peculiar color Lance had never seen.

Putting his two years as a Lush employee to work, he looked for the different products that had already been there, the ones he had picked up from space mall and the ones he had brought from home, and proceeded to explain the components and what they would do to each crew member.

After forty minutes Lance had them all with face (and in some cases also hair) masks and relaxing to some tunes Pidge had downloaded from Ariela’s cellphone to the Castle data base. Coran also fetched them some snacks, seeing pleased how Shiro ate a lot of them. He had eaten a lot during lunch, their little tea-party, and also now. They had to make him gain the weight he had been losing somehow.

It took almost two weeks for Shiro to get completely back to normal. Suddenly he was doubting himself all the time, watching the paladins from the corner of his eye, as if expecting to catch them whispering behind his back behind him, but they proved to be extremely supportive by staying on their best behavior.

Even when the panther and Ariela started doing attack drills with them, he kept the viciousness to the minimum, actually letting Ariela follow Shiro’s orders dressed as suggestions.

Ariela had already tried to pilot the panther a few times while they were flying through space, and it had been okay, but she still didn’t feel comfortable enough to pilot it to battle. Although the panther had proven to be collaborative when it wanted, Ariela could still feel how it didn’t like her that much besides the giant mountain of hate the being had piled up in its insides.

But, with a little bit of nudging from the entire crew, she accepted on doing the drills with the team. And it was..., surprising, to say the least.

There were a few incidents at the beginning; incidents were the panther seemed to get too excited, excitement flooding its pilot’s mind and making her become more aggressive, thing she already seemed prone to do. She would stop listening to Shiro’s orders and start listening to the panther, who only wanted to slay more and faster. It was an intoxicating feeling, a tingling sparkle that went from the mouth of her stomach up to her neck and then down her arms; she felt flooded with power.

“We should try meditation,” Coran said as he looked at a remorseful Ariela, who had failed to dodge the green lion in her blood rush, causing Pidge to bang her head against the controls and get a tiny split on her forehead, which was now being cured by Shiro, the unofficial nurse of the team.

So, two hours before dinner, after everyone showered to wash the training sweat, Coran guided Ariela, Allura and Lance (who had offered to go as moral support) through a meditation unlike the humans had ever experienced. Ariela actually managed to put a barrier in middle of her link with the panther’s mind, shutting off any kind of signal but the small flutter of life that they both could feel from each other. It was weird. Ever since activating the panther, it was like having an annoying roommate inside her head, who would sometimes drift off and drown in his its own issues instead of putting his nose on Ariela’s. That didn’t happen usually though.

Lance could also down this blind between Blue and him, and he fucking hated it. Blue had become such an important part of his everyday life that not having the soft rumble of her presence in the back of his mind almost physically hurt. She helped him with his dark thoughts, his homesickness. He definitely needed her. 

After a few days, Ariela was able to put what she had learnt with Coran in practice, effectively distancing her will from the panther’s while piloting. It was impossible to completely shut it off and use the robot as the tool it was meant to be, and it also felt unnatural. Ariela was sure that she wouldn’t be able to pilot the machine alone, nor would any of the others. Feeling the other consciousness was essential. 

“You did amazing today!” Allura exclaimed while they were all having dinner.

“That’s true. You were surprisingly obedient,” Shiro mumbled, side eyeing Ariela. Although she had completely ignored the leader’s orders a few times, she had behaved better than normal.

Coran chuckled. “You have to remember, Shiro, that the panther is its own entity. It and Ariela won’t always act like you want, because they don’t need Voltron. Plus, it has a rebel strike that makes them prone to just ignore you.”

Allura looked at everyone on the table, trying to catch if someone was going to keep talking about that or if they were over. When Hunk let out a long exhalation that signaled the end of his laughter, she took a deep breath.

“In fact, you did so well that I was thinking we could maybe get back out there,” she said, voice a little bit higher in volume, wanting to be sure that everybody had heard her. And they did.

Ariela, Shiro and Hunk suddenly froze while the rest just looked up at her. 

“Do you really think I’m ready to fight?” Ariela asked, head low and shoulders hunched. Her voice was almost a whisper and Lance felt the urge to grab her hand to comfort her. “I mean… It’s only been a week since I started doing well.”

“Of course I would not send you guys to a Galra war base for your first mission. We would start slow; farming colonies with low security and the kind.” She caught sight of Shiro’s somber face, pointing at the table, and took another deep breath. “I know that we stopped fighting because you felt too insecure, but… It has been almost four months since we were last heard of. I am scared that the people may lose the hope that one day Voltron will appear and they will be saved.”

Hunk started nodding slowly, a sparkle of determination showing on his eyes and his clenched fists resting next to his plate. “Hope’s important in this situation. The Balmeran’s wouldn’t’ve helped if they didn’t have hope.”

“It pushes people to rise up against the empire sometimes,” Pidge contributed.

“Of course, it depends on you, Ariela. If you feel comfortable enough to start fighting, there is nothing holding us back anymore. We have all of our paladins, and we are well rested to get back on the battlefield,” Allura said, gifting the scared woman next to her a warm yet awkward smile as she reached to grip her other hand.

Ariela suddenly felt all eyes on her, a heavy weight on the back of her head, but it was just her imagination, because Keith, Pidge, Coran and Allura were looking at Shiro, who was paler than before and had stopped eating since the subject came up, which was weird because the man ate like someone on death row in every meal. 

“I’ll… I’ll think about it,” she nodded.

# . . .

Hunk’s eyelids were starting to slip closed when he heard a really subtle knock on his door. Wondering who it could be, because only Lance visited him on his bedroom, he got up from bed and commanded the door to open. Surprisingly enough, Ariela was standing in front of him, already on her pajamas, and looking quite worried.

“Hey there,” she mumbled, toeing the frame of the door. “Do you think I could come in?”

Hunk pointed at his bed with a smile. “Sure, get comfortable.”

Ariela went in and the door closed after her. Instead of going to the bed like Hunk had said, she sat on top of the guy’s empty desk. She remained silent for a few seconds, hugging her arms and stoically looking at the top of the bed, while Hunk sat down on his bed and waited with patience.

“How…?” she started, before letting out an exasperated breath and starting to push into her hand’s flesh too hardly. “You always mention how afraid…, how much you hate fighting.”

“Yeah” Hunk chuckled.

“How can you get out there with so many negative feelings hanging over you? I mean, there are so many fears… Failure, someone or yourself getting hurt… Getting killed! There’s pressure to perform, to not fuck up… How does all that tension inside you not get in the middle of your fighting?” she asked, getting more worked up as she numbered things.

“Hmm…” he started rubbing his chin, thinking about a god answer.

“Because you’ve told me so many times how much you hate this. And I understand because if walking alone at night is scary, fighting in a fucking war is even scarier! And I get scared too, even though I look like a fucking rock because I have trouble showing my emotions…”

“I just…” Hunk cut her off, making Ariela’s fear-filled and wide eyes turn to him, the rusty gold irises seeming like a spotlight put on him. “I think of why I’m fighting, all the motives. I just think of what would happen if I didn’t fight, or if we lost. My family, Haunani, even Shay…”

“The girl you told me about? The Balmeran?” she asked with a soft smile, and he nodded. “She did sound like quite an inspiration, yes. And Haunani… Man, you really got the lottery with that girl for what you told me,” she added, and Hunk was suddenly beaming while thinking of his girlfriend. “They are good people to fight for.”

“I bet that if you thought about it, you’d come up with a long-ass list,” he replied with a smile, and Ariela nodded slowly. “Just… Picture them on the Castle, watching you fight for them… It’s almost as if you could hear them cheering on you, and fearing that something’ll happen to them usually works for me.”

“You are protective… And a great person to talk to about this stuff,” Ariela murmured, but the tiny smile that she gave him was kind of sad.

“You also have to remember that you’re not alone out there. There’s us, there’s Coran and Allura… And there’s the panther. Knowing that Gold will always be there for me also calms me,” he added, noticing how Ariela’s ears perked up at the mention of the panther.

“Psh. I doubt much that the panther and Gold are similar when it comes to the treatment of their pilots,” she chuckled out, but Hunk made a face that said “idk” and shrugged.

“I think you should talk to him, maybe you just need to open up to him to get him to open up to you.”

Ariela frowned. “Him?”

“Oh. It just struck me that he has a masculine energy. Am I misgendering them?” he asked, putting a sincere hand over his heart, but Ariela shrugged.

“Well, I don’t know. Now that you say it, it does have a masculine energy, but I just refer to it as…, well, it.”

Hunk’s eyebrows rose as if he had discovered the answer to all of his problems and he got up, walking towards the door. “See, Ariela, you refer to things as it. The panther is like a person. I think you should go and talk to them, sort some things out.”

Gulping, Ariela got up, again hugging herself and looking at the door, but now she didn’t struck Hunk as scared… More confused he would say, judging by the deep frown she was sporting. He could almost hear the gears turning on her brain. He commanded the door to open and she went through it.

“Thanks, Hunk. I’ll go do that,” she told him with a smile, and then left. The door closed again, and the man settled to have a nice night of sleep.

#  . . .

At night the Castle seemed to down the temperature. Coran had mentioned something about Alteans finding the cold comforting and relaxing, so in an environment where stress was a calculated factor (a warship was no place for relaxing, even if the Castle counted with spa facilities and the kind) it was normal that the drop of temperature was a feature when the lights out were signaled.

Ariela regretted not bringing a coat or a thicker pajama.

Hugging herself and slightly shivering, the woman made her way to the panther’s hangar, walking slowly to gain time. Time to think. Hunk was right, the panther wasn’t just Artificial Intelligence (or maybe it was, but such an advanced level that it was more human than anything), and she had been, not only thinking about it as a machine or a tool, but treating it with the same cold shoulder it…, /he/ had received her with.

She had to make up for it. Their situation reminded her of Lance and Keith a few months ago, hating each other over misunderstandings and miscommunication. Truly pathetic. Mapping a plan was important, she had to concrete about what she said, the panther had a very limited patience and if she overstepped that he would just tune out and give her his back.

Ariela hadn’t even reached the hangar when she heard the rumble of the panther turning on ricocheting on the hallway’s walls.

/What do you want? It’s not practice time/ he murmured, sounding mad.

The woman stepped into the room and looked at him in the eyes, thinking for a few seconds before opening her mouth to speak.

“Are you a male?” she asked, confusing the panther. The robotic head tilted slightly to the side and there was stillness on their connection that let her know she had confused him out of his thoughts. “Would you like me to refer to you as a male? He/him pronouns?” she expanded, speaking as patiently as she could.

The panther looked at the floor and started swishing his tail lazily. /I guess, yes/ he said, and Ariela smiled, starting to walk closer.

“And do you have a name I can call you by? Calling you “panther” is kind of awkward.” Again, the panther lost himself in thought, standing up and starting to walk around the hangar at some point.

/No one ever gave me a name, so I don’t have one/ he said. Ariela sat down on the table with the cleaning tools, making herself into a small ball of warmth.

“Would you like me to give you a name? Or maybe help you name yourself?” she asked, and this time the panther wasn’t confused, he was determined as he walked to sit right in front of her, head held high.

/Why are you suddenly being so nice?/ he asked, and Ariela sighed, gulping before choosing her words carefully.

“I got here only knowing that my brother needed help. I didn’t care about anything else. I didn’t even care about the other people I met… And for me to understand… You are not just a robot, you are your own being with thoughts and wants and…, things. You just happen to be trapped in a machine. I couldn’t grasp such a concept.”

The panther’s tail snapped behind him; it could be both a sign of piked interest or annoyance. “So?”

Ariela stopped hugging herself and started rubbing her hands. “I overlooked you as a conscious being. I overlooked your wishes, your reasons… We started on the wrong foot, and even if you decided to put how much you hate me aside and help the team we never really got to discuss it.” She looked at his eyes again. “I want to be able to fully trust you when we’re out there. If it were only me and you out there… I want to be able to not feel alone with you.”

A low rumble came to her even before she had finished talking as the panther lied down on the floor, the tip of his snout almost brushing her naked toes.

“I…”

/Let me think for a while/ he interrupted her, but his voice was calm. The tone of disgust or disdain that she was so used to hearing wasn’t there, so she just got as comfortable as she could on her seat and rested her head against the wall, closing her eyes and trying to focus on picking up the panther’s thoughts.

She could catch emotions. There was confusion, sadness and desperation, almost as if it were tornado of bad memories, but then there was a silver of excitement; the image of a blonde woman with curious green markings on her face flashed on her mind. She was wearing a paladin uniform, similar to the ones Ariela’s teammates wore. 

Another rumble made her open her eyes. The panther was staring at her with piercing eyes. /There is a big darkness inside you./

She let air out of her nose. “There’s a big darkness inside all of us,” she started, noticing that the panther seemed to recoil at that, “we just need to choose what to do with it.”

/And what do you choose to do with it? Because this isn’t normal darkness. There’s resentment, betrayal, need for revenge…/

“I turn my darkness into fuel so that I have energy to do the right thing,” she answered, her voice in a haste to cut him short. “Fuel to fight for what I want to fight.”

/And what do you fight for?/

Ariela took a deep breath to tell him it wasn’t his business, to tell him to just take what she was giving and conform, but she stopped herself. That path would lead to where they were standing before.

“I fight for…, my family. My aunt, my uncle… The McCalins. Guido, Nazarena, Benjamín.”

/Do you fight for your parents?/ he asked, making the woman’s whole body go tense.

“You know what they did. They stopped being my family long time ago.”

The panther sat up again, looking down on her as if he had found something that would give him the upper hand. /If you don’t respect your parents, if you don’t fight for your own blood, then how can I trust that you won’t just use me… Turn and leave when you grow tired of this./

Ariela slammed her palms on the table, making the panther’s tail snap. “You. Know. What. They. Did,” she repeated through gritted teeth, spitting out the words as if they were the most bitter thing she had tasted in her life. “They betrayed my trust, they betrayed our bond. They abused the power they had over me physically and psychologically. He willingly took me apart, piece by piece. It didn’t even matter that I was his child.”

/Juliana didn’t do anything/.

“My mother let him do it. She supported and covered for him. When she saw me on that bed she wasn’t thinking about how she had let her daughter almost die! She was thinking about how to get him out of the mess he made.” As if it changed anything, she stood on top of the table, looking up at him. “Unless that you plan to beat me to within an inch of my life just for existing the way I exist… I won’t leave you. I’ll fight /with/ you,” she concluded.

Feeling her knees starting to go weak at the memories, she decided on sitting down again, and the panther lied down again, his huge yellow eyes right in front of her.

/If you translate it to betrayal… I guess I can understand/ he mumbled. /My life was taken from me to fight a war I didn’t have anything to do with. I was used as if I was a machine without a will… Punished horrendously when I tried to rise up./

Ariela frowned. “Punished?” The first answer was a sinister chuckle.

/Neither are you as weak as you seem nor I am as powerful as I seem / he said. He let out another rumble. /I guess we were both broken by other people./

“I guess,” she mumbled, resting all of her weight on the wall.

A long silence followed, in which they both felt the exhaustion that came with remembering seep into them. Ariela was feeling colder and more tired by the second, feeling herself slip into sleep.

/Would you really fight with me? And not use me to fight?/ he asked, and she nodded immediately.

“I now understand that you are as much of a teammate as Lance or Hunk,” she stated, and the panther sat up again, opening the bridge to get in.

/Get into the cockpit before you get sick/ he murmured with resignation, and Ariela lowered her face to hide her small smile, even if the panther could feel the warmth those words had sparked in her. Just like she could feel the warmth in him.

Sitting on the wide chair of the warm cockpit made her relax, and she was about to fall asleep when the panther said.

/I’ll allow you to propose a name for me, but it has to be a nice one./

“Hmm…” she hummed, rubbing her eyes. “There was this one tale, where there was this one black panther… He was a really protective and grumpy animal named Bagheera,” she told him.

/I hate it./

Ariela chuckled and shrugged. She fell asleep.

The panther sighed. /Bagheera it is then./

# . . .

They were having breakfast in silence when Lance’s head popped up on the dining room through the door. “Hey guys, have you seen Ariela? I went to wake her up but she wasn’t in her room.”

They all shook their heads. “Have you looked on the panther’s hangar? We talked about them last night and she headed that way when she left,” Hunk said, and Lance turned to go there, but came face to face with his sister, who was still on her pajamas and looked like she had just woken up. Her curly hair was a mess, some parts jumping in different directions, but she had decided that she wouldn’t iron it anymore, so it was only normal.

“Good morning,” she greeted with a small smile, and they all answered with varying degrees of niceness. “I talked with the panther last night,” she announced, while sitting down.

Allura looked up, a little bit worried. Last time she had seen Ariela after talking to the panther, the woman was having a break down on the floor. She seemed perfectly okay now, though. Allura would even say she looked better than normal, a little bit more radiant.

“What did you talk about?” Coran questioned her with curiousness on his voice.

“Oh, you know… Our complicated relationship? And other things…” The woman sighed, pouring hot tea into a mug and warming her hands up with it. “I think that we’re both ready to get out there,” she concluded, nodding to herself.

Allura’s eyes beamed. “REALLY?” When Ariela nodded, she clapped her hands together and stood up. “That’s so great! And perfectly timed too!”

Hunk frowned. “What do you mean, Allura?”

“We’ve already reached the border of this quadrant, and we’re incredibly close to one of the youngest. There’s a planet called Menosfor there, they used to be Altean allies. They were never fighters, it goes against their instincts, so the Galra put only a few soldiers there and they’re a mining and farming colony,” she explained, Coran nodding all along.

“That doesn’t sound like a planet that the Galra would want to conquer,” Shiro murmured, just as a comment, but it turned into a useful input.

“That’s true. They originally went after the Menosforeans because they’re absurdly intelligent, and they keep developing new technologies all the time, so it is useful to keep them alive… Although their numbers have doused.”

“And you want us to break them free for our first mission?” Keith asked, and Allura nodded.

“It’s such a peaceful planet that the Galra assigned there are all young and inexperienced, except for their commander. It will be an easy win,” she answered, and Lance shivered. Allura talking about their ages, it reminded him that they were actually killing people.

/Not people/ Blue purred in his mind, trying to comfort him. /Only Galra/.

# . . .

Shiro was definitely not ready for another mission. 

Ever since the pitiful breakdown on the supply bay, he couldn’t stand the idea of getting out there again. If some shitty alarms and flashing lights had gotten him like that, who could say what would happen when he went on the battlefield?

And the paladins had seen him! They knew how weak he was, and even if they still pretended to respect him and obeyed his commands, he knew they would be constantly worried about him, checking that his fucked up brain didn’t throw him into a whole again.

But he couldn’t refuse to do the mission. He had agreed to continue once they had the working panther.

When they all woke up tomorrow, they would be close enough to Menosfor to begin the attack, and he was not ready. The nerves where crawling on him and biting at his skin as if they were bedbugs, making it impossible for him to lie down. He had been sitting on the cold floor of his dark room for thirty minutes before he decided that he might as well use his time wisely and go train. 

Unfortunately, when he was walking down the hall, one of the other doors opened and Ariela walked out of her bedroom in her pajamas, but also looking restless.

“Oh, hi there,” she said with a soft smile.

/Just my luck/ he groaned on his mind and Black huffed.

/Serves you right for avoiding her like the plague all the time/ she said, sounding like an angry mother.

“What were you doing?” the woman asked, when Shiro did not give any sort of response. 

“I…” Shiro started scratching his nape as he tried to come up with something. If Coran had almost locked Keith up on his bedroom when they discovered him on the training deck at one in the morning, Ariela was going to chain him to her door if she caught him going there at three fucking am. “I was kind of restless, so I figured I would go grab a midnight snack,” he answered.

The woman smiled again, walking towards him and leaving her door opened. “Oh, great minds think alike, I see,” she chuckled. “Would you mind if I joined you?”

He desperately wanted to say no. He didn’t quite know why yet, but even if Ariela always kept her boundaries, he felt exposed when he was with her, almost as if he was standing naked in front of her inquisitive eyes.

He sighed and jerked his head to the side, indicating her to follow him, as he began walking.

Surprisingly, Ariela went in silence, only speaking again when they reached the kitchen door. “I’m making myself some tea. Would you want some?” she asked, going to the hot water dispenser.

“Yeah, why not,” he answered, as he rested against the island, watching her go about collecting the mugs, the Altean herbs and something that tasted like pure honey. A minute later, she was handing him a mug filled with a tea that smelt great. 

Again, she stayed silent, waiting for her tea to cool down a little bit and blowing from time to time before drinking it. 

Shiro felt like he was about to get ambushed. In his mind, it was no coincidence that she had just walked out of her room at the same time than he had done it. She probably had been awake, waiting for him to pounce and kill him with questions.

She just kept drinking in silence.

“So,” Shiro said, clearing his voice. He couldn’t take the silence any longer. “Why couldn’t you sleep?”

Ariela snorted and turned to look at him with a small smile. “Take a guess,” she said lowly.  
“You’re nervous about tomorrow.” She nodded. “You know that we can always hold back, right? You don’thave to get out there if you’re not ready,” he told her, but she shook her head.

“No. I’m tired from hiding, and I know that Bagheera and I are ready. It’s just always scary doing something extreme for the first time,” she said.

Shiro frowned. “Bagheera?”

“Oh, that’s what I named the panther. Well, in fact he named himself, I just proposed the name,” she said, doing air quotes and giving him a look that let him know the panther wanted everyone to think that.

/Fuck you/ Bagheera told her, and she chuckled.

“I guess it’s the same thing with you,” she murmured, before sipping her tea again, and Shiro nodded after a few seconds.

“No use trying to avoid the subject, huh?” he said, and the woman shrugged.

“You brought it up, captain,” she said, making him sigh.

“Why do you call me that?” 

Frowning and confused, Ariela turned to look at him. “What? Captain?” He nodded, and she shrugged again. “I don’t know. You’re a captain, and it certainly suits you,” she answered. “If you don’t like it I can stop,” she quickly added.

Huffing, he separated himself from the island and started walking in circles. “It’s not that I don’t like it,” he started, hand flying to his nape like it always did when he was uncomfortable or flustered, “I feel like I don’t deserve it.”

“Why?”

This time it was he who shrugged. “I don’t know… It was my fault that the Holts and I got captured, I can’t even keep teenagers out of danger no matter how hard I try, and I don’t even want to go out there.”

Yeah, he definitely didn’t deserve being called captain. A captain was someone who was always under control, someone the rest of the crew could always trust to be cool and clearheaded, to keep them safe and do his job. He wasn’t any of those things. 

Ariela looked at him for a few seconds, expression filled with unbelief, before leaving her half empty mug on the island and getting closer to him. “Shiro, are you fucking kidding me?” she asked, confusing him.

“What?”

“First the fact, it was not your fault you and your crew got captured. You were doing your job and some assholes came in between; you committed no mistake. Second the fact, if it weren’t for you at least half of the kids would be dead and…” Ariela threw her hands up and took in a very deep breath, before slowly letting it out with her eyes closed, her hands coming down to rest on Shiro’s shoulder to his surprise. “I know I just called them kids, but they’re not. The only kid here is Pidge. Lance is already twenty-one, and if I’m not wrong, Hunk and Keith should be twenty or about to turn.”

“Lance is twenty one? I thought he was Hunk’s and Keith’s classmate,” he said, making Ariela shake her head.

“He was. He just missed a year during middle school.” She sighed another time. “Fact the third… None of us wants to go out there, Shiro. I think that if we were given the chance, we would all return home to cuddle under the blankets with our loved ones and try to forget everything.”

When he stayed silent and looking at her eyes with shock, she kept talking.

“The only reason we’re putting out lives at stake is because we know there are many more endangered, even our loved ones’. That and because we have each other, we have support when we’re out there.”

/No, no,no/ Shiro thought when he felt the knot in his throat become tighter and his eyes started to water. He gently grabbed her wrists and lifted her hands from his shoulders at the same time he retreated until his back hit the countertops.

“Why would you say that?” he asked, lowering his face and trying to control himself.

“Why would I say what I think?” she asked confused. He could hear her concern, but she still kept her distance.

“Why would you comfort me when you should be telling me to suck it up?”

She didn’t answer for a few seconds, and then “What?” she asked with an outraged tone.

“Ariela…” He sighed and rubbed his face, tiredly. “You saw how I can be.” She nodded. “You can’t let me get emotional, because I don’t know where it will end. Just… I shouldn’t even have told you that,” he groaned.

“You shouldn’t have told me what? The things that bother and upset you?” She went closer again, grabbing his face and forcing him to look at her. “Listen, Shiro, I don’t know if it is some sexist idea or the stress of being in middle of a war, but you are a human being. Do you know what that means?”

He just stared at her and didn’t answer.

“You are allowed to have feelings. Both negative and positive. And you’re also allowed to express them freely and talk about them.”

“You really think that?” he asked, voice barely hearable, and Ariela seemed out of words for a few seconds, even taking a few steps back.

She remained silent for almost a minute, before grabbing one of Shiro’s hands. “Do you know what crying is, Shiro?” He shook his head. “Emotions are chemicals, and when the brain’s overflowing with chemicals, it lets them out by the tear ducts. If you put them under a microscope, tears of sadness will look different than those of happiness,” she explained.

“Why are you telling me this?”

“The brain can be damaged if we don’t let the overflowing chemicals out. If that happens only with crying, imagine what trying not to show any emotion can do to you. Bottling up things that hurt us is very damaging for our health.”

He shrugged. “Is a little more damage worth it, though? I mean, it’s not like I don’t deserve it.”

Ariela frowned and squeezed his hand tighter, forcing him again to look at her with the other, and catching his watering eyes. “You think that you deserve all this?” she asked, voice high pitched and barely audible.

“You only sound surprised because you don’t know what I did,” he said, lifting up his arm next to her face and turning it on. It started emanating heat, and Ariela knew that with a mere brush her skin would be burned. “Do you think they gave me this so I wouldn’t be afraid of the dark when I was alone in the cell?”

The heat disappeared, and Ariela grabbed the robotic arm, warm to the touch, and put it to her cheek, he man’s breathing cutting off. “Shiro, I might kill people tomorrow. Just like you killed people in the arena, just like Lance and Hunk, and Keith…, even Pidge killed people in the battlefield.” His eyes were wide open, not parting from where his prosthesis was touching her. “My father and my uncle killed people in the war… That didn’t make them less human and less deserving of being treated like one.”

“They were soldiers?” he asked, and she nodded.

“They were recruited at eighteen to fight against the British in the Falkland Islands. My uncle almost died, but they both managed to return in one piece. And they both returned with a body count.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know…”

“It’s okay,” she told him with a small smile. “What I’m trying to say, is that war puts people in ugly places, makes them do ugly things. And… As long as we’re fighting for the right thing we should never be ashamed of what we do.”

“I was not in a war when I fought in the arena,” he insisted.

“That’s right. You were just a slave slash prisoner, just like the people that the Romans forced to fight in the Coliseum.” She placed her hand on top of the robotic one. “The things that we do when our life is in danger… This,” she said, tapping her fingers against it gently, “doesn’t make you a monster, Shiro.”

His jaw tensed and the first tear fell down, and although he felt so ashamed that he would be able to hide for another week under the covers, he was also kind of glad that this was happening. It was a small part of him, in an abandoned cranny of his brain, that was relieved and trying to explain why.

“You’re no less deserving than us when it comes to being down, and scared, and in pain…” She sighed and smiled as more tears started falling down, slowly slipping closer until she was resting her head on his chest and letting his arms free to hug him.

He surprised himself by returning the hug and trying to hide his crying on her shoulder as much as he could, silently shaking. “I know it can be hard at the beginning, but you need to know that you can trust us, tell us anything that keeps you up at night.”

“I know… But I still… They look up to me… I can’t let them see me like this… Not again,” he answered between shaky breaths, desperately trying to regain composure.

“Tomorrow we’ll all be out there and they’ll still look up to you and respect you, Shiro. It doesn’t matter that you had an attack in front of us. They always knew that you were struggling with something, and now they only know how much they need to support you.” She swallowed hard before the next part. “Let us help you.”

She stopped talking after that, and let Shiro take the silence to recompose himself. Slowly, the tears stopped flowing, he normalized his breathing and he parted away from the woman, not meeting her eyes when he spoke.

“I really appreciate you guys wanting to help me… I’m just not ready yet,” he murmured, and was surprised when she patted him on the right bicep.

“At your own time, /captain/,” she said, finally putting distance between them again. “Now, I don’t know you, but I think we should down the tea and try to get some sleep,” she said, grabbing her mug and taking a big gulp. “Weird.”

“What is it?” he said, before sniffing and grabbing his own mug.

“It’s cold, but it still tastes good!”

He chuckled and confirmed that she was right by taking a sip himself.

They finished drinking the tea in silence, rinsed the mugs and walked back to their bedrooms in a surprisingly comfortable silence, only broken when Ariela was about to get in her bedroom.

“Ariela?” Shiro called, and the woman turned to him. “Thank you.”

She smiled. “Whenever you need it.” She turned around and waved at him. “Have sweet dreams!”

And he had… Well. He had an empty black nothing instead of dreams, but that was definitely sweeter than the nightmare plagued sleeps he usually got.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who don't know, I recently started college, my freshman year! It's ridiculously great and demanding, so I haven't had that much time to write lately, but it's pushing me out of bed, so depression won't be such a big problem from now on!
> 
> Comments and kudos are always greatly appreciated! Remember you can always check out my tumblr (thenewbohemianq) for more content (on the when the lions come tag) and submit questions, comments, etc!
> 
> Love you!


	8. Everything stays, but it still changes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! I'm back with a 40 pages (15k) chapter.  
> Enjoy!

Last night they had all gone to sleep earlier than usual so that the next day they could all wake up earlier than usual.

Keith arrived early at the kitchen and was surprised to find that most of the team was already there, including Allura and Coran, who eyed him with doubt (after what Keith had told him a few nights ago, the man wasn’t quite sure he should be going to battle, but it wasn’t like they had a choice). Ariela was playing with some sort of space scrambled eggs instead of actually eating, movements lazy and dark bags letting them know she had had a rough night. Shiro, who was usually like Ariela during the mornings, looked kind of well rested though still anxious. Then there was Hunk, who was nervously looking between the two black paladins.

“Good morning,” he mumbled, taking his sit next to Shiro, who shot him a side smile that was a little bit too forced for Keith’s taste. He couldn’t avoid thinking about how the man was feeling right now; after witnessing Shiro’s panic attack on the supply bay, Keith had become hyper aware of all the times their leader had been reluctant to go out there, and the toll it took on him.

“Good morning, Keith. Do you know if Lance and Pidge are already awake? I want to talk through all the information we have before we reach Menosfor,” Allura told him.

“That would be greatly appreciated, yes,” Ariela all but whispered while her eyes didn’t leave the table, causing Hunk to get up and change seats so that he could sit next to her and rest his head on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, Ari. I’m sure you’re going to do amazing,” the yellow paladin told her, causing the woman to smile in appreciation.

“I can’t stop thinking about every single thing I could do wrong,” she said.

Shiro opened his mouth to say something next to Keith, but then closed it and frowned to himself. Keith was going to tell Allura that he had no idea about either of the missing teammates, but the doors slid open and Lance walked in, face flawless and apparently just cleansed, while wearing his signature robe and Pidge slid next to him, looking like a walking corpse.

“Oh, there you are!” Allura exclaimed, happily standing up as she commanded the information she needed to appear on the wall they could all see.

“I want to die,” Pidge announced to the whole audience before sitting down and putting her attention on Allura, who didn’t even flinch, having become used to this sort of humor after spending so much time with Ariela.

“Thank you for your input, Pidge. Now,” the picture of a planet appeared in front of them and Allura turned to look at them. “Menosfor is a relatively new planet, with a relatively young civilization. Menosforeans are ridiculously smart, though, so they evolve at big steps.”

“They used to be one of Altea’s most important allies when it came to the development of intelligence, whatever kind was needed. Mathematics, physics, chemistry, alchemy, engineering…” Coran told them.

“Indeed. The thing is that they were always an extremely pacific race, never standing up to anyone. They were dependent on their neighboring planet, Alesia, to not be conquered. When Alesia fell to the Galra, Menosfor was theirs to take,” she told them, the picture of another planet gravitating dangerously close to Menosfor showing. It was smaller, and it looked more arid than the other one. “Alesians were a fighter race. Their environment was extremely harsh, so they developed shape shifting abilities to adapt, just like Alteans. It is even rumored that we might descent from them… Somehow.”

“Wait, this Alesians would be the original Alteans?” Hunk asked, and Coran shrugged while shaking his head.

“Our DNA’s were pretty similar, just like certain physical characteristics and abilities, but it is impossible for them to be our ancestors.”

“The thing is that they became extinct. The Galra saw them as one of the few races that could actually stand up to them in terms of power, so they put a lot of effort in annihilating their whole race. Or that’s what they thought, at least…”

The picture of a man appeared in front of them. He had caramel skin, freckles covering his whole face, neck and shoulders. His eyes were bright green, ears long and high, much like those of an elf in Earth movies. His features were strong, like the ones in a Neoclassical sculpture, and he had a stoic look in his eyes. His dark almost black hair was pulled back in a ponytail of dreadlocks.

“This is Anferum, the last Alesian alive. As I mentioned, Alesians have shapeshifting abilities, so a few of their families snuck out to Menosfor during the war to infiltrate so that they could continue to protect the royal family of Menosfor.” Allura skipped the picture to a person with pale green skin, beautiful slanted black eyes and androgynous features. “Even under Galra ruling, Menosforeans managed to maintain a sketch of what their original government used to be, so their ruler Feer is really important to them.”

“How do you have these pictures?” Keith asked, and Allura smiled to him.

“Anferum and Feer managed to sneak a call to the Castle when they heard of the rise of Voltron. Apparently, some of the Alesian fighting spirit has gotten into the Menosforeans, and they are ready to join the coalition and take an active part in the war.” The pictures were replaced with Altean text, and Ariela recognized bits and pieces of Galra dating style. “According to the information we picked up from the bases and from what Anferum and Feer told me, Menosfor is just a farm for the Galra. Their planet does not produce any minerals or metals they are interested in, and their people are extremely peaceful, so the level of protection is ridiculously low, even if Menosforeans are their number one research group, due to their intelligence.”

“The Galra has had them developing everything for them ever since the second half of their ruling. This means that, if we free Menosfor, we would have knowledge of the last five thousand years. Weapons, data storage, communication systems… Everything,” Coran said.

A big silence followed as the paladins took in all the information they had just been given.

“So…” Ariela started, fidgeting with her spork. “Freeing this planet is quite the big deal, huh?”

Lance, who had sat down next to her, ruffled her hair before planting a noisy kiss on the woman’s cheek (making Keith’s eyes shoot wide open and his heart sink in his chest). Ariela cooed at him before resting her head on his shoulder, still managing to support Hunk’s.

“It’s an easy mission, Ari. Don’t worry.”

# . . .

Ariela couldn’t help but worry. Even if they had never been actual soldiers, the other five paladins had been educated in the Galaxy Garrison so that they had some basic piloting knowledge, the functioning of the ships and their technology. Ariela, on the other hand, could explain the difference between the ego and the superego. She had no previous knowledge of how to pilot or how to proceed in certain circumstances whatsoever.

She was silently panicking while shooting her teammates smiles of (fake) confidence when they split ways, each to their hangar. The air around her smelt of cold, that sharp scent that made you think of ice shards, and her hands were trembling as she slowly powered up the different parts of the panther that needed to be powered up before they left the Castle and dived into the battlefield.

“Pidge’s scans revealed that their defense system is one of the most basic ones, so they won’t know you’re here until the lions trespass the atmosphere,” Allura announced and Ariela let out a shaky breath as she gripped the handles until her knuckles were white.

/Calm down, kiddo. You’ll do great/ the panth… Bagheera rumbled into her ear, and suddenly it was as if she could feel Bagheera there, next to her… Well, behind her, to be more precise. He was leaning into the back of her chair and staring into the slowly opening gates of the hangar. /You are going to kick some ass and then you’re going to go celebrate with the rest of the team/ he said into her ear.

“Yes, you’re right…”

“Ariela?” Shiro’s voice cut through her troubled thoughts, reminding that she had her coms on.

“I’m alright,” she blurted out as she sent the panther out into space with shaky hands, taking deep breaths to try to calm herself.

“I know. I just was going to say that you’re not alone out there. You have us, okay? Anything that happens, we’re going to be there with you.”

/I’ll also be there/ Bagheera mumbled, and Ariela smiled, quickly shooting a look to the camera of her communication system and catching a glimpse of all the other paladins looking at her expectant.

“Okay team, you know the plan. We go in and destroy as many automated weapons on the surface as we can before they have time to call a fleet.” There was a chorus of   
“Yes, captain” and then they all shot through space, quickly nearing the cloud covered atmosphere of the big planet.

Ariela noticed the blue and yellow lions reassuringly flying closer to her, but it wasn’t enough to calm down the ball of electricity that had settled on her stomach, making all her nerves itch and her breath quicken.

“Let’s do this,” she whispered as they breached the atmosphere and started soaring through thick grey clouds, Bagheera rumbling contently into her ear. She could feel his eagerness to get out there and shred Galra ships to pieces.

The clouds were gone, and Ariela came face to face with what looked like what the Amazonian rainforest could have been on the prehistory. Gigantic trees with trunks as big as buildings rose from the ground, plenty of space left between them to see the rivers running between them and the Galra automated weapons that the panther’s screen immediately marked down for her to shoot at. Enormous buildings that reminded her of Aztec ruins were constructed in between the trees, thick branches working as bridges between them.

“Okay team, let’s do this!”

A blur of colour went flying past her and next thing she knew the lions were blowing shit up, following Shiro’s orders that the woman could hear through the coms. She was frozen, hands hovering over the controls, not knowing what to do.

/Come on, Ariela. You trained for this/ Bagheera said, poking at their mental bond so that the woman would let him in instead of keeping him out.

“I don’t know what to do,” she managed to squeak out. She heard Keith’s voice urging her to blow up the stations marked down, but it sounded muffled, as if she was inside a jar.

In the mindscape she shared with the panther, Ariela could feel very human hands settle on top of hers and guide them to firmly grasp the controls. /I can’t afford you taking me out on the battlefield and not defending us/ Bagheera said, but Ariela could tell it wasn’t what he was actually thinking. /Let me show you what to do/.

“Just… Don’t make me shut you down, okay?” Ariela told the panther, before letting her control slip away.

Her breath caught in her throat and a frown formed on her face when the panther, instead of completely sweeping her away and taking all control like he used to do, calmly guided her through activating the rear propellers and turn to face the big ion cannon that was attacking the yellow lion, whispering in a steady voice how to activate the weapons.

Ariela had already known how to do all of this, her teammates had taught her, but having the panther reassuring that what she was doing was right slowly pushed her into a new and weird comfort zone, where all doubts left her mind so that there was space to think of what to do. As the minutes went by and she became more accurate at evading shots and shooting hers, the battle started to feel more like a game, and it became something thrilling.

“WE HAVE COMPANY!” Pidge announced, and Shiro quickly gave the order to form Voltron. A small fleet of Galra ships from all sizes was nearing them.

Bagheera chuckled into her ear, low and contagious. /Oh, yeah. It’s been such a long time/ he thought. His energy was slowly starting to seep into the woman; she felt her skin pulled taut around her body and the air filled with electricity. She felt as if she was lighting ready to crack down on the Galra ships and set them on fire.

With a smile that would have scared her, Ariela hit the pedal and shot to the middle of the field, fingers hooking under the triggers of the lasers and shooting with no reserve. Slowly but surely, she started seeping into the mindset of the panther, of a predator. The robot became her body; she could feel her claws coming out and her jaw clenching at the thought of her teeth piercing metal.

/That’s it, you’re doing great!/ Bagheera exclaimed, laughing loud and Ariela did the same.

Even if Voltron was the biggest threat on the field, Ariela and Bagheera were leaving quite the trail of wreckage behind them, the woman becoming number and number to what was going beyond her line of sight.

That was until a transmission coming from outside their communications systems reached them. The Galra ships stopped their attacks, and so did Voltron.

“What’s going on?” Ariela asked, searching for some clue on her teammates’ faces, but they all seemed to be as confused as her, looking at Shiro.

“It is a message incoming from the main ship of the fleet,” Coran informed. Shiro gulped before letting the message through.

The image of a Galra in a fancy armor appeared in front of them, solemn expression on his face and chin raised high in pride. “Team Voltron, this is Captain Protor speaking. We advise you to give up,” he said in a grave voice.

“And why would we do that?” Shiro asked without flinching. Another image appeared in front of her. Two Galra soldiers were standing each at one side of a Mensoforean on his knees, panting and groaning. One of the soldiers gripped the bright green hair, ruining the intricate braids that had been done in favor of showing their face.

It was ruler Feer, the last living member of the Mensoforean royal family.

“Unless you want their ruler to die, you will yield. We will be generous and give you five minutes to make your decision and surrender Voltron.”

The images were cut, and the transmission ended.

“Did they not notice me?” was the first thing someone (Ariela) said.

“I don’t think it’s the right time to be offended...” Shiro started, but Pidge shut him up.

“No, Ariela is right. They didn’t have her in consideration. They have all their focus on Voltron.” Effectively, all the ships were turning their back on the panther.

/Psh, idiots/ Bagheera mumbled.

Hunk whined, clearly in distress. “Even if we didn’t move Voltron, Ariela wouldn’t be able to destroy the whole Galra fleet on her own before their commander gave out the order to kill Feer.”

Ariela’s breath quickened as she started to think. “Coran?”

“Yes?”

“Can you trace back the image of Feer? Know where it came from?” she asked, and the man told her that he was already working on it. “What if we make them think that Voltron is giving up, I sneak in and save the ruler?” she asked.

Shiro’s face immediately went stiff.

“Don’t even think about it, Ariela. We’re not sending you alone to a hostage taking on your first battle,” Shiro said.

“It is our best option, though,” Keith commented after him, voice sounding weak. Ariela spared him a quick glance on the monitor and noticed that he was paler than usual, eyes feverish.

“It’s out of discussion. Ariela, stand back. We will find another way out of this,” he insisted.

“I’ll be okay!” the woman said. “I bet they’re actually not going to kill him anyways. All of this is a ruse for them to gain time to call for backup!”

Shiro sighed and rubbed his face.

“The image of Feer was sent from the planet, not one of the ships,” Coran announced, a pointer appearing on Ariela’s screen, indicating her where it was, letting her do quick calculations.

“I can go around the planet, sneak the panther near enough that place without being seen and save Feer in less than four minutes. You have to let me go,” she insisted, already sneaking the panther around.

“Ariela, get back here now, it’s an order!” Shiro told her, almost screaming. The woman barely shot a side glance to his image on the monitor, discovering that Shiro had gone from cool headed to on-the-verge-of-throwing-up nervous.

She shook her head, “Shiro, I know it makes you feel bad, but you are not my boss, and it is the only thing we can do right now!”

“ARIELA, STOP!” Lance yelled. “It’s too dangerous.”

“La, la, la, la, soy de palo, tengo orejas de pescado,” was the woman’s response before she went on doing whatever she pleased. (Translation: I’m a stick, I have fish ears. It’s a little song to mock someone and let them know you’re not listening to them).

/That looks more like one of my paladins/ Bagheera said, gloating on Ariela’s anarchy.

“Coran is already running to the pods to go help her, paladins. I am certain Ariela will be able to handle the situation,” Allura reassured them.

“Thanks, princess,” she said with a small smile, making the panther sink in the green sea of trees, following the map Coran had sent. “I’m already there.”

/Don’t get too far, kiddo, or I won’t be able to help you in any way/ the panther told her as she jumped out of her chair and ran to the exit of the robot, already knowing through which window-like opening she was going to sneak through.

The air was thick with humidity, reminding her of her home, when she got down. There was an ominous silence, only broken occasionally by the chirping of colorful birds that were perched on the high branches.

“Okay, I’m doing this,” Ariela muttered to herself, calculating the jump from the panther’s snout to the opening she had landed near to, through which she could see people. She retreated a little bit, before running and jumping with all she had.

She almost didn’t make it, but she managed to grip the frame at the last second and hoist herself up on the window sill.

She perched herself there, quickly taking in the room. There was practically no drop to the floor (maybe a foot), contrary to what she had though. The room was more like a chamber, with high vaulted ceilings and lots of space. Their backs facing Ariela, the two Galra soldiers that were keeping Feer on their knees were calmly chatting in a deep sounding language that reminded Ariela of German. She really liked how German sounded. Two more guards were napping next to the door; at least a hundred Menosforeans were silently waiting for something to happen, also on their knees and far from the soldiers and there was one more Mensoforean near the soldiers. They barely seemed to be breathing and Ariela wasn’t sure they weren’t dead.

“Shiro, focus on us!” Pidge yelled on the coms, and Ariela could hear some cursing from the man.

She activated her bayard, the buzzing sound causing one of the Menosforeans to turn their head and look at her with wide scared eyes. She quickly put a finger to her lips and signaled them the Galra soldiers. They nodded and started nudging their mates to make them look.

Ariela got down from the windowsill and walked without making any noise, the Menosforeans moving away to give her a clear path.

“I’m a minute away,” Coran let her know, but Ariela didn’t answer.

She braced herself and hit one of the soldiers in the back of their head with the electric end of her staff. The soldier dropped his gun, hands flying to his nape and screaming in pain, causing his teammates to look at him.

“HEY!” one of them screamed when the soldier fell unconscious to the ground.

It was chaos from then on.

Menosforeans started screaming and tried to squirm away, Galra soldiers ran towards the woman, and her weapon was not good for such close combat fights. One soldier struck her twice in the stomach before she managed to put a distance between them and pierce his stomach with the bladed end of her staff. She let her weapon go when she had to dodge a blast from a gun that almost killed her.

She swept another soldier to the floor and kicked them hard on the head. They went limp but where probably still alive.She was getting up when someone stomped on her leg. A crack cut through the air and she screamed in pain. The panther roared in her brain.

“ARIELA!” she heard Lance call through the coms.

“Who the fuck are you?” the soldier asked, pinning her to the ground with her chest against the floor. He took the helmet off and grabbed her by her hair-bun, looking at the woman gritting her teeth with a scrunched nose. “You’re a human right?”

A blast went through his head and the soldier fell lifelessly to the ground. Ariela tried to squirm away from him, but she couldn’t manage. He was too heavy.

“Help the paladin!” someone ordered, and four Menosforeans got near her to take the dead body from her, reluctantly going on when the weigh was transferred to the woman’s leg and she let out another yell.

Ariela turned to look at the door and found Coran shooting dead the last soldier standing before trotting next to her.

“How did you do?” he asked, giving the final push to get the Galra out of her, cringing when he saw the woman’s left leg. “Wo, boy.”

“Yeah, it wasn’t as heroic as I wanted,” she chuckled, swallowing a scream of pain when the man started to rearrange the bones. In a second, Feer’s face was on top of hers as the ruler of Menosfor tried to help Coran.

“You saved my life putting yours in the line. No matter how that happened, it was heroic, Paladin...”

“Ariela,” she filled in for them, and they smiled at her. “What happened to that guy? The one unconscious?” she asked, pointing with her chin at the... Wait what.

On the spot where the dubiously alive Mensoforean had been laying, a whole other alien was being helped up.

“That was Anferum, an Alesian. He caught quite the beating for me and was using his last reservoirs of strength to keep his true identity hidden,” he explained.

“Where’s the rest of your people?” Coran asked, finally turning to look at the ruler. Someone passed Ariela her helmet and she put it on, wincing at the high-pitched screams coming from the paladins, who were still fighting and worrying their asses for her.

She almost didn’t hear Feer speak.

“The Galra soldiers were ordered to massacre everyone but the erudite.” His eyes looked impossibly sad as they looked around the room, where friends were being reunited. “This is all that’s left of my people.”

Ariela sighed. “I’m sorry we didn’t come sooner,” she told him, but the ruler gave her a sincere smile.

“We are talking about war. It would be foolish of me to think that I could save my people.”

A body dropped down next to the ruler and Ariela recognized Anferum’s face under all the bruises and the dried blood. The Alesian let out a weird chirping sound that comforted her as if it was a lullaby before rubbing his face against Feer’s shoulder and kissing it.

“If it weren’t for you calling Voltron we would still be in bondage. I’m sure no one regrets any of the choices made, dear.”

/Oooooookaaay/ Bagheera chuckled in Ariela’s mind. /Definitely didn’t see that coming/.

Someone else came close to talk to Feer, and the two love birds quickly parted away, the ruler almost pushing Anferum from him.

# . . .

Shiro was focusing so hard on his own thoughts that he flinched when Allura stepped next to him, eyes nailed on Ariela’s sleeping face.

After the hard (harder than it should have been) battle, he had personally gone to the chamber were all the Menosforeans were waiting for the fight to end along with Coran and Ariela. After exchanging a few words with the Menosforean’s ruler and letting Ariela speak with the other paladins, he had picked her up and took her back to the Castle, jaw clenched in anger.

The woman had sighed, looking away from him as he walked them through the silent halls of the Castle. “I know you didn’t like me going alone, but I had to do it, Shiro.”

“You could have died,” he grumbled out, catching the woman’s cheeks turning red. “I’m the captain, so you should obey my orders. I know that Feer would have died otherwise, but he’s not as valuable as you. They could manage without a ruler, we can’t manage without a paladin.”

“Shiro,” Ariela started, and he turned to look at her (arms crossed and trying to be intimidating even though he was carrying her like she didn’t weight anything). “You are not a captain here. You are a paladin. And guess what, I’m a paladin too. You know what this means?”

He rolled his eyes. “Still, I am the one with military training.”

“It means that we’re on the same level. You are not my boss, you’re my teammate,” she said, completely ignoring him. “I might not have been trained to be a soldier, but I was chosen, so that means that I must be capable of doing this.”

Her words hadn’t made him feel any better, to be honest.

“It’s just a broken leg,” Allura said, snapping him back to reality. “She should be out in half an hour or less.”

“She shouldn’t have gotten hurt in the first place,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest. Allura had spurred Ariela on when she had said that she could save Feer on her own, so he didn’t quite want to look at her right now.

The princess sighed, calmly sitting down on the steps next to Ariela’s healing-pod. Even if she was looking up at him, he couldn’t help but feel inferior.

“I know that you are angry that Ariela didn’t follow your orders, Shiro. And I suppose that you are also angry that I supported her and not you.”

He looked away. “I’m the black paladin for a reason. If I’m going to be the leader, then they have to obey my orders.”

Allura shook her head and rested her weight against the pod, remembering things she didn’t want to remember. “A leader is not someone superior to the rest of the group. A leader is the person that is willing to push forward and be in the front lines. Being the black paladin doesn’t mean you have authority over the rest, Shiro, it means they trust you to walk them through the best path, and sometimes you can be wrong... Just like we all are sometimes.”

Shiro shook his head, fists clenching close to his body. “It’s just...” He took in a deep breath and let it out. “I don’t like not being in control. And the worst thing is that being in control ends up stressing me out,” he finished with a groan, getting down to sit next to Allura. In this position he could see the sleeping Lance a few feet away. He had arrived five minutes after Ariela was put under, and even though he wanted to wait awake until his sister came out, he had practically fainted after a few minutes.

Allura had probably fetched the blanket that was covering him now.

“Control is an illusion,” Allura said after a few minutes of silence. “My father thought he was in control, and that’s how he ended. Zarkon thinks he is in control, but there is a revolution brewing in his empire...”

“Still...”

“We can never be actually in control, Shiro. I understand your need because I feel it too. It is almost inevitable to think that if it were up to us, everything would be better. There is always that tiny ray of hope that we can do the perfect thing.”

“I know... And deep down I knew that it was the right thing to do... Let her go. But I still couldn’t help it. I had to fight and instead of focusing on my battle I was distracted by thinking about what would happen to her...”

“I saw your face when you heard her scream,” Allura nodded.

Shiro shook his head, eyes nailed on the sleeping blue paladin. “I almost lost Lance... Then Keith. The chances that one of them will die on me are so real it... I don’t really want to fight. There is so much at stake.” Allura turned to him with worried eyes and he chuckled, even if it was low and dark. “I won’t leave Voltron, don’t worry. I have many more things to lose if I don’t fight than if I do.”

“But it is still frightening.” He nodded.

# . . .

Pidge couldn’t help but follow Ariela’s twirling skirt and her flowing hair was she moved. It created a contradiction in her. She missed wearing pretty dresses and her long silky hair, but that was still the reason she had been bullied for so long. “Why do you even try looking all girly if you’re such a nerd?” her classmates would always spit out at her the day she dared to wear a skirt to school.

And there you had the Princess of Altea and the Paladin of the Black Panther; both with long and luscious hair, long skirts that moved with them and tops with either jewelry or embroidery... And weapons hanging on their hips.

“Damn, girls. You look gorgeous,” Lance hummed, as he reached them. He was wearing one of his few pairs of jeans and a nice dark-blue shirt. “Where did you get those clothes?”

Allura blushed and look down, so Ariela was the one to answer. “Allura showed me this cool machine there’s in the Castle. It can make clothes! So, we just used it to create this,” she said, doing a few spins to show of the flight of her dark-green skirt, the drawings of branches and flowers blurring together in tiny streaks of color.

“You should come with us next time, Pidge. Allura is great at designing clothes. We could make us some matching dresses!” Ariela said, jumping up and down as she got close to grab Pidge by the shoulders.

“Nhh, I don’t know,” she said, scratching her neck and looking around for back up, but everyone was so happy that Ariela was happy after getting out of the pods, and Keith wasn’t there to have her back like he usually did. “I don’t think I’d look as good as you in a dress.”

Lance snorted. “Baloney. I bet you would look great.”

“Where is Keith? The party is going to start anytime now,” Allura asked, nervously fixing her own white dress with long sleeves.

Coran, wearing the suit he always wore, raised his hand. “Keith was not feeling well, so he asked us to excuse him tonight,” he said, making them all frown.

“What’s wrong?” Shiro asked.

“It looks like he was incubating some sort of flu virus, and the exhaustion of the battle made him break a fever. He will be okay in a few days,” the royal advisor said, looking at Shiro too straight in the eyes.

“Oh, well. We have to get going or we will be late.”

Feer had been quick to announce that they all needed to get their minds off from stuff, so that the party would take place that very same night, and the talkings about alliances and more would start the following day.

While the paladins recovered from the battle, the Menosforeans had given their fallen a proper funeral, with the help of Hunk and Pidge, who couldn’t help the unease at the thought of leaving those people alone through such an awful time. And while the paladins showered and dressed up, the Menosforeans got ready what used to be the royal palace for the party and the paladins’ stay.

They had done an amazing job.

The room where the party would take place was a huge chamber, again with high vaulted ceilings. The only difference to the one Ariela had seen was that this one was on top of the building, so those vaulted ceilings were made of glass and showed off the beautiful foliage and colorful animals, and that it was surrounded by wide balconies that had places where you could sit. From the ceiling, across the walls and reaching the maroon-stoned floor, fabrics of color fell and gave the place a little more life. There was a huge table filled with food and drinks on one side of the room, and on the other there was a small platform where musicians were getting ready to play.

Feer’s face lighted up when he saw the crew walked through the door. Silence fell between the Menosforeans as they all turned to look at them, some with smiling face and some on the verge of tears.

“Paladins of Voltron, crew of the Castle of Lions,” Feer started, making a gesture so that a few Mensoforean kids ran to them holding big bouquets of flowers. “You saved our lives tonight, and you freed my people from slavery. For that, we will always be in debt to you.”

Someone in the back rose a glass. “LONG LIVE THE PALADINS OF VOLTRON!” and the rest imitated them.

“Damn,” Ariela whispered, taking one of the bouquets and gifting the small child the brightest smile Shiro had ever seen. “I really wasn’t expecting this.”

“Menosforeans had always been known for being gracious hosts,” Coran commented, just before the music started playing, something that made Lance think of jazzy tunes. “Ruler Feer, thank you so much for this,” he said, when the Mensoforean walked up to them wearing a tunic embroidered with golden thread. Anferum was close behind him, wearing more simple clothes.

“It’s the least we could do,” he said, doing a small bow with his head. “I really hope you enjoy the party. Please, let all worries here and come further into the room. Our parties are quite famous because what happens in the night stays in the night,” he murmured, eyes flickering to Lance. “Blue paladin, a few of my closest friends were wondering if they could have a word with you. You seemed to catch their attention.”

# . . .

Lance got drunk very quickly.

In his defense, he has always been conscious of his low tolerance to alcohol, so he quickly learnt how to manage his drinks. But, apparently, Mensoforean alcohol worked differently than the one back at Earth, so his management techniques hadn’t quite worked.

They were an hour into the party and he had a lapful of Mensoforean beauty, strikingly bright and deep green skin changing shades under the light of the Mensoforean equivalent of fireflies, that were much bigger and shone a wider range of different colors. The Mensoforean cheerfully talking on top of him with their arms looped around his neck was Andra, and the one sitting next to him and resting their whole weight on his side was Lir, who just listened to their partner with a special light on their eyes.

“You should have seen the marketplace before the Galra, Lance. It was astonishing,” Andra said, managing a hum from Lir as they tangled their fingers’ together, making Lance’s heart clench. Apparently, Menosforeans were quite open when it came to PDA, and he couldn’t avoid but crave the loving looks the two were exchanging.

It was enough to distract him from Anferum’s piercing gaze changing between him and Ariela, who was kind of tipsy and chatting cheerfully with Allura as she taught the woman some basic jazz moves.

Shiro was sitting in a couch, dwelling on so many thoughts rushing through his mind, one of them being if he should keep drinking or just call it a night. Mensoforean drinks had also taken him by surprise, but he wasn’t as bad as Pidge, who had passed out on some couch on top of a Menosforean’s lap, who was caressing her hair as they talked with Hunk.

Someone fell gracelessly next to him and then Ariela was grabbing him by the neck, asking him to forgive her for her actions and to stop sulking.

“Come on, captaiiiin. You’re too pretty to ruin your face with wrinkles,” she mumbled with a chuckle before murmuring to herself: “Te di vuelta el patriarcado, amigo.” (I turned around the patriarchy for you, friend).

“She’s right, Shiro. You should be having fun, not worrying,” Allura said, sitting next to the woman and squinting at him. “And I guess you have quite an attractive face,” she added. Now Shiro was squinting at her.

“You guess?” he questioned in a sincere tone. Ariela snorted.

“Come on, princess! Have you seen him? He’s like, as hot as the sun!” the woman commented, almost smacking both of her listeners on the face when she signaled the size of the sun before turning to Allura. “Just like you. Too many hot people around me. Wee woo, danger,” she chuckled.

Shiro watched amused as Ariela slowly leant forward towards Allura’s face, full intend on kissing her probably, and the princess’ face got as red as Keith’s lion, before she jumped out of the couch and disappeared in between the dancing crowd.

Ariela clicked her tongue, looking upset.

“I can’t flirt with girls. We’re so complex,” she murmured, turning to Shiro. “You guys are dumber.”

Instead of getting offended, Shiro nodded and took a really long swig of whatever he was drinking. “All the blood rushes to our dicks and we can’t think,” he quickly answered, licking the raspberry flavored droplets from his lips.

“Yeah,” the woman replied absentmindedly before following Shiro’s eyes to Lance, who was chatting with two very friendly Menosforeans.

They both watched in silence as the one sitting on Lance’s lap leaned in to whisper on his ear, making him blush and smile, before the three of them were standing up and disappearing through the door while holding hands.

Shiro suddenly slapped Ariela’s thigh gently to call her attention, making her jump. He was blushing profusely and looked even more worried than before.

“I’ll forgive you for today’s thing if you get wasted with me.”

Ariela raised her arms to the roof in delight. “Let’s destroy our livers!”

By the time Shiro felt his consciousness come back to his body, the sky was brighter with a second smaller moon. There were fewer people on the chamber, but the party was still going quite well. Ariela was singing to some jazz song he didn’t recognize (maybe because she was singing too slurred for him to hear something that made sense) as she danced in his arms, hips moving swiftly to the rhythm.

That’s what he should be attracted to, he thought as he eyed the woman from head to toe. She was like crazy attractive, funny, smart and strong. Still... His eyes kept wondering away, looking for someone who wasn’t there.

“Do you like Lance?” Ariela asked, snapping him back to her. Her cheeks were flushed and her eyes gleamed, but otherwise she looked serious and sober. “I could totally play wingman for you, you know?”

Shiro’s face went blank, but she felt his flesh hand tighten around her waist. “I don’t like Lance,” he answered calmly.

“Oh, come on! I’ve seen how you look at him. You looked so jealous when he went away with those two!” she told him, volume a little louder than Shiro liked, making him look around and hiss. People were side-eyeing them with amusement.

“Why don’t we go and get some fresh air?” he asked, already pulling the woman out of the dance floor to one of the empty balconies and closing the door after them, so that no one would interrupt them. When Shiro turned around, he came face to face with a drunk and unamused Ariela, who was giving him the quirked eyebrow. “Lance is a great guy, I really like him but I’m straight, so...”

She snorted again. “Yeah, right. You’re as straight as a rainbow.”

“I’m sorry?” he asked, tilting his head to the side.

“Shiro, how much do you remember from the slumber party that went to hell?” The man’s face going dark was answer enough. “You practically grinded with my brother for half an hour and drank like five shots from his collarbones with bonus bites and hickeys, though I can’t really hold that against you because you weren’t the only one,” she said, making an awkward gesture with her hands.

Shiro groaned and rubbed his face before clicking his tongue. “Can we just forget it and never talk about it again?” He hated how chocked up he sounded about it, but he couldn’t help it. Apparently, he could only recall bad memories now.

Ariela frowned and got closer to him. “Shiro? Are you okay?” She grabbed his hands when he shook his head, leaning down to make him look at her. “Hey, talk to me.”

“It’s just wrong, okay? Forget about it...”

“What do you mean it’s wrong?” She pulled him by his prosthetic hand to a bench and made him sit down, placing what intended to be a comforting hand on his thigh.

“Let’s not even mention the fact that this could get me killed back home. If a girl likes guys and girls too it’s okay, because guys don’t find it weird, it turns them on, but girls don’t want to be with guys that like guys too,” he explained, blushing at how fucking childish he felt repeating girls all the time. He was twenty-five years old, for fucks sake.

A long silence fell, and he chanced a look at the woman next to him, wondering if she had gotten distracted because (after all) she was still drunk, but she was just shocked.

“WHAT?” he asked in a high-pitched scream after what felt like fifteen minutes. “Where the hell did you get that from?”

“The world? I don’t know, Ariela, it doesn’t matter.” She grabbed his face and forced him to look at her straight in the eye as she spoke slowly.

“Shiro. Do you like men or not?”

He hesitated, and his stomach turned when grotesque memories from his teenage years came to him; his body definitely didn’t want to have this conversation again.  
“I don’t know, Ariela, but it doesn’t matter…”

“Shiro, listen to me… Attraction, love, whatever you want to call it… It should never depend on other people. You don’t have to apply other people’s limits to yourself. If someone loves you they won’t care if you like dudes too, okay?”

“Yeah, right, it’s every girl’s dream sleeping with a guy that maybe likes dick up his ass…”

Ariela, to his surprise, laughed. “You would be surprised… I used to top my boyfriend Benjamin, and I certainly did not dislike it.”

“What?” he asked with a deep frown on his face. Ariela blushed with shame this time, surprising him yet again.

“Well, he didn’t exactly ever say that he was attracted to men too, but he was curious about anal, so I said that I wouldn’t mind fucking him with a strap-on and we both loved it, so…”

“Oh, god.”

“Yes, I know, TMI. But if it takes talking about my sex life to make you see it doesn’t matter…” she trailed off, making a gesture with her hands that was characteristic of her. They both stayed quiet after that, until Shiro decided that he wasn’t sober enough to kill his curiosity.

“This Benjamin… Did he ever.... Do something?”

“With a guy?” she asked, and he nodded, his blush deepening as he looked away. “Yeah, he made out with my best friend a few times, but he never went beyond that. He said he really didn’t care for it, but he always liked girls’ bodies more.”

They both kept quiet for a while, Ariela waiting for him to give her some sort of reply and Shiro thinking. He really didn’t know what to make with all this information. Yeah, maybe Ariela didn’t mind, but Ariela had proven to be quite a peculiar person.

“I identify as polysexual,” she said out of nowhere, making him look up at her. “Do you think that my attraction to women makes my attraction to men less valid?”

“No, of course not.”

“Then why would you think that of you?” she asked, and he sighed.

“I’m not saying it would be less valid… I’m just saying that it’s not well seen…”

He could almost hear Lila screaming at him. They had been at the woman’s apartment in a town near the Garrison when he hinted that he might not be as straight as they both originally thought. The woman had thrown an ashtray at him and yelled about how she couldn’t be with some ‘fake man’. He could also almost hear the sound of flesh hitting flesh and screams of pain; sometimes they were some unknown guy’s and sometimes they were his own. He certainly wanted to push those memories aside and focus on his harmless ex.

“Do you know how I met Lance, Shiro?”

He shook his head. “No… But I don’t see how it has something to do with this.”

“Just shut up and listen,” she cut him. “My aunt used to work and still works as his dad’s personal assistant, she lives in the McClain residency. I met Lance when she had to adopt me when I was eleven.”

Shiro looked for some sign on her face, but found nothing, so he asked, “What happened to your family?”

She shook her head and rested her back against the railing. “Nothing. As far as I know, they’re okay.”

“Then why did she...?”

“She asked for my custody when my father almost beat me to death.”

Shiro felt his heart stop for a whole second and all warmth leave his body. Had he heard right or…? Ariela almost died because her father beat the crap out of her?

“What?”

She took in a long breath and hugged herself, even though it was quite warm outside. “I was ten when I had my first crush on a girl. Didn’t think much of it because I was just a kid and the only thing I knew was that I liked her, so I wrote her a little love note and hid it in her backpack.”

Shiro leaned back and covered his mouth with his hand.

“Her mother found it and called my home, extremely worried because a girl was crushing on her daughter. My father picked up, he went crazy and almost killed me.”

“Why…?”

Ariela shrugged. “Maybe he planned on punishing me and scaring me out of liking girls? I don’t know. He got out of hand. It was a vet against a ten-year-old girl, so it was bound to happen…”

He could only look at her, imagining what she would have looked like at age of ten, all bruised and bloody because some fucker… Because her own father wanted to scare her out of liking someone.

“In court he claimed that he was so enraged that he was out of his senses, so he got out on bail because the jury thought it was totally understandable, but my aunt managed to get my custody before they sent me to conversion therapy.” She said, both face and voice completely devoid of emotion, and it was such a weird look on someone so expressive like her. It weirded him out. “I spent the next ten years of my life wondering what the fuck was wrong with me, why I was so fucking disgusting that my own father would rather kill me with his own hands than accepting me…”

“Ariela…”

“And then I learnt that some people are made for hate and others for love,” she finished, finally leaning close again, putting her hands on top of his. “The only thing ‘wrong’ with me is that I love too much, maybe; I love enough to go over other people's limits for this love. And if someone doesn’t like me for that, it means they are awful people. I should never set those people’s limits to myself because I need to be free to love whoever I want to love.”

Shiro waited for a few seconds for her to add something, but it was him who did it in the end. “And I should be free to love whoever I want too, right?”

She nodded and gave him a sweet smile.

“Sexuality is something complex, Shiro. Maybe today you want to suck dick and tomorrow you don’t. And that’s okay. Just don’t let other people set your boundaries, okay? Never think that something you like is wrong by default, just because it isn’t the ‘norm’, okay?”

He nodded, and he could really had left it there, but he felt loose. Maybe it was the warm air, the alcohol, or the fact that Ariela had given him so much that he felt the need to return some.

“It’s just…” he started, gulping halfway through. “There are so many things wrong with me already… I don’t want to add something else that is out of the norm, you know?”

Ariela only tilted her head to the side, slightly surprised that he was still opening up. “And what would those things be, Shiro?”

He shrugged. “My past… My present… I don’t know. My mind is fucked up, my body too… I’ve done awful things, Ariela, almost to the point I couldn’t deal with them,” he confessed. He could feel the need to talk about it burning up his throat, but it was still hard. Would she look at him differently if he told her?  
/Hunk doesn’t look at you differently, and he was there/ Black provided. She had been surprisingly quiet all day after the battle.

“You can’t tell anyone about this,” he started, and Ariela rushed to nod. “Only Hunk knows, because he was there.” He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes. “Before we went to fetch you, Keith almost died. Almost a week went by before we knew if he would even make it or not. And… I couldn’t deal with it. He is like my younger brother, and thinking that I hadn’t been able to protect him…”

“It was not your fault.”

“I know, but in that moment I couldn’t think like that. I couldn’t sleep or eat. My head was practically swimming in fever.... I thought that I just couldn’t deal with it anymore and that it would probably be better for the team if I just wasn’t there. I’m a menace, after all. I’ve killed people.”

 

“To survive.”

“Whatever. The thing is that I wanted to be gone and I somehow got to the bridge of one of the propellers and I thought ‘Hey, maybe the fall would kill me’ so I jumped.” He shivered, remembering how his stomach had suddenly felt like a black hole and how desperation had taken over him. “Apparently Hunk had been calling out for me and following me but I was just too out of it to notice. He grabbed me by the back of my vest and hauled me back up.”

In a second he had a lapful of silently crying Ariela, the woman quickly hugging him tightly, and it took Shiro a few seconds to hug her back. He didn’t expect that reaction.

“You are great, Shiro. Don’t ever think that we would be better off without you because it’s a lie,” she whispered against his hair.

“Really, though? I mean… I’m fucked up… I can’t focus on missions because I’m too scared, I’m always too tired because I can’t sleep, I never have energy because I can’t eat…”

“Shiro, you eat like a starving man every meal,” she said, pulling away to look at him with a confused expression, and he blushed with shame again.

“I try to control myself but I can’t. I eat too much too fast, so I end up throwing up later,” he murmured. Understanding flashed through Ariela’s eyes.

“They didn’t feed you well while you were a prisoner I guess.” He shook his head. “So, your body still thinks you never know when your next meal will be.” He nodded. Ariela grabbed his chin and made him look up. “I’m serious Shiro. Talking about all of these things… It enables us to help you, and you need help. We all do.”

“I’m the leader. I shouldn’t be needing help.”

“You are our teammate, and out friend. You are human, and you are allowed to go through rough times, and you are allowed to be accompanied through those.” She sighed before continuing to speak. “Please reconsider my offer, Shiro. Opening up about all these things to someone, whoever you trust most, will help you a lot.”

He nodded. “I’ll maybe think about it.”

# . . .

Lance woke up to someone opening the door and announcing their presence in a completely unnecessary loud voice. Then he remembered the company he already had and thought that maybe they were trying to give him a heads up.

Hunk and Ariela walked into Lance’s room, showered and wearing clean clothes, and stared down at him with ashamed and cocky expressions.

Apparently, Menosforeans were very heavy sleepers, because Lir had barely adjusted their head on the pillow and Andra hadn’t stirred in his arms. He silently sent a thanks to God for the blanket had stayed in the same exact position they had left it the night before, covering their naked bodies.

“So, did you have fun last night?” Ariela asked with a hussy smile, and Lance shushed her, feeling the headache coming.

“Ugh… What time is it?” he asked.

“Like ten in the morning, but don’t worry. Menosforeans sleep in and go to sleep late, so they’re all still at bed, just like your friends.” Lance showed her his middle finger before burying his face on Andra’s nape and pulling Lir close. “Anyway, party animal, Anferum dropped by my room after I woke up and told me that Feer would like to talk with us in private about something.”

He frowned, turning to squint at the blurry figures of his sister and best friend.

“Can’t Allura deal with all the diplomacy?”

“It’s something else. Apparently, it involves us directly,” Hunk answered, looking him in the eye for the first time. “It seemed really important.”

Sighing, Lance sat up slowly, letting the sheets pool on his lap.

“I’ll shower and meet you on the hallway, okay? Just…, don’t make noise,” he said, voice turning into a desperate plea when he felt his own pulse on his temples.  
“I’ll order you a nice and greasy breakfast,” Hunk said, before pulling Ariela out of the bedroom.

Lance didn’t get the chance to shower because there was no shower, so he first got in the tub and tried to wash his body as best as possible without filling it. Then, once he deemed he was clean enough, he filled the bathtub and put a few essential oils he found on a nice basket and what looked like bath salts.

“Hello there,” he heard a croaky voice say. He opened his eyes and sat straight o the bathtub where he had been about to fall asleep again. Lir was leaning on the arch that led to the bedroom. They were still naked and looked quite sleepy.

“How you doin’?” Lance asked, giving him a wide smile and pulling his arm out towards him. Lir seemed to understand and walked towards him, sitting on the edge of the rock tub.

“I am feeling great. Yesterday was…” he started with a small smile, before leaning in and kissing Lance slowly, who was pleasantly surprised to discover that Menosforeans didn’t suffer from morning breath and always tasted like mint. He felt a shudder run up Lir’s body and the whimper escape when he snaked his tongue on their mouth, making the Mensoforean break away to take a deep breath. “Amazing.”

“I’m glad you liked it. Still surprised you had never done it, though,” he chuckled, loving how Lir looked at him with mild annoyance.

“You must remember that we don’t have your same…, equipment, Lance. We can’t work with what we don’t have.”

That pulled a full on cackle from Lance, shaking the water so much that a little slipped out. Lir smiled and pulled Lance close to kiss him again. This ended in Lance pulling them inside the tub and a make out session, interrupted by a high-pitched voice.

“What are you two doing up so early?” Andra asked as they squinted at them. Lir broke apart from when he was licking at Lance’s neck to look at their partner.

“Lance got up and I woke up because it was cold,” they said.

“The other paladins told me that Anferum and Feer want to talk to us,” Lance told her.

“Oh. And do they really need you there or could the Blue Paladin be absent from his duties?” Andra asked, slowly and sensually getting closer to them, before slipping inside the water and settling on the tiny space between Lance and the wall of the tub. “Look at Lir. You already got them so bothered,” they murmured on Lance’s ear.

# . . .

By the time Lance came out from his room, all of his team (excepting Keith, who seemed to be sick still) were waiting for him with different expressions. Shiro was the only one who didn’t seem annoyed, in favour of letting his surprise show when the couple of Menosforeans walked out of Lance’s room and disappeared through the other side of the hallway, not without wishing Lance farewell and telling them they had to meet again before they left the planet.

Once the couple turned in a corner, Pidge opened her mouth to talk. “So, lover boy? How does it feel like to be the first one to sleep with an alien?” she asked, making Shiro snort.

“I love how that sentence implicates that the rest of us will also sleep with an alien,” Ariela commented.

“So? How was it?” Pidge kept pushing.

“I’ll give two dollars I had in my pocket to anyone who guesses which the only erogenous part of Menosforeans bodies is,” Lance announced with a smug smile as he started walking after Shiro, who seemed to want to walk away from the conversation.

“Their crotch.”

“No.”

“Their hands.”

“No.

“Hair?”

“Nope.”

“Chest.”

“Nopity nope.

“Their mouths?”

Lance turned to look at Hunk. “Ding, ding, ding. We have a winner!”

“Oh, God. The mental image!” Shiro murmured, and Ariela side eyed him, making Lance notice that he was blushing profusely. “Can we talk about something else?”

# . . .

“How do you think they will take it?” Feer asked from where he was standing completely straight and still, viewing the rainforest from a window. Allura wasn’t sure, but she was almost certain that the ruler of Menosfor was sporting a paler green today.

She shrugged as she sat down on one of the chairs available. “I’m not so sure, to be honest.”

The doors opened, and five of the six paladins walked into the room, trying to drop their cheerful attitude as they ventured further. 

“Someone told us that you wanted to speak to us, your majesty,” Shiro said, bowing slightly when they were all standing relatively close to what seemed to be the main desk of the office-like room.

“Please, Paladin. Feer is more than fine,” the ruler said, turning away from the view and towards the paladins. He had an awkward smile that let Allura know he certainly wasn’t used to doing this kind of thing. “Anferum came to me with a hunch last night, and I think we might have confirmed said hunch.”

When an awkward silence formed, and Hunk grew tired of critically analyzing the rustic decoration of the room, so he said “And what hunch was that?”

Feer cleared his throat and Anferum walked up towards the desk. “When Alesians knew that the last battle against the Galra neared, and that we would certainly lose, we started discussing options. Galra had openly manifested that Alesians had to be annihilated because they believed us one of the few races able to defeat them, so there was no hope of them letting any of us live.”

“This meeting was top-secret and only a few members of the royal Mensoforean family were notified… Of it and its results,” Feer added, walking next to Anferum and sitting on top of the desk as the Alesian sat on a chair and pulled out a holographic keyboard.

“We knew that we were going to sneak a big group of Alesians into Menosfor so that we could continue to protect them from the inside, but someone said we should send a big ship away, somewhere way far from the Galra limits.” Anferum’s fingers started flying over the keyboard. “The ship went away, and we never heard from them again. No one knew where they were going exactly, but the coordinates were passed from one royal guard to the other for generations, until they reached me.”

The paladins watched as the coordinates were put in the search bar and the small picture of a part of space showed.

Ariela was about to ask why the fuck this was so important when someone put a hand on her shoulder and she turned to see Shiro with a hint of recognition in his eyes. “I know those constellations.”

“So do we,” Pidge said.

“What?”

Anferum zoomed in on the planet marked down by the coordinates until they had a clear picture of the Earth.

“Oh, I see.”

“When I met you yesterday at the party, I was clear headed enough to recognize Alesian blood in a few of you,” Anferum explained. “It’s stronger in you two,” he pointed at Ariela and Lance, “but you have some too,” and then at Shiro.

“So, this means we have alien blood?” Ariela asked.

Lance shook his head. “Hold on. How the cheese did you know that we have Alesian blood? Can you smell it or something?”

Anferum relaxed on the chair as he started playing with his hair. “The motive Alesians posed a threat to Galra and are thought to be connected to Alteans is our strong connection to quintessence. Compared to some of the ancient races, we’re nothing but ants, but our species seems to be an inflection point in the flow of quintessence, which is what allows us to shapeshift.”

“What he means is…” Feer started. “He can feel the dormant energy in you, not smell your blood.”

A few seconds of silence went by before Lance shook his head. “Okay. Whatever. Why would this be so important?”

Feer and Anferum exchanged worried looks and didn’t say anything, so Allura got up from the chair where she was sitting and got closer to the paladins.

“Anferum is sure that you guys have enough Alesian blood in you that, if you wanted, you could activate those genes and gain many if not all of the Alesian powers,” she explained. “Shapeshifting, strength, sharper senses, speed, thicker skin and bones… You would be more powerful.”

Lance started laughing.

“Yeah, right. Look, guys, I have nothing against aliens, but I want to stay as human as I am right now, so thank you, but no.” Anferum’s face darkened and Ariela watched how Feer went to comfort him but stopped himself halfway.

Ariela turned to her brother. “Would it be so bad, though?”

# . . .

Shiro had a bad feeling about this.

Lance had taken Ariela to a private room where it was hard for the other paladins to hear them talk even while having their ears stuck to the door. Sometime around the half hour they had started yelling enough that they could make out a few words. 

By the time the two of them came out, they weren’t looking at each other and Ariela asked to talk with Allura, Anferum and Feer in private, making Lance storm off and lock himself in his room.

Now, Shiro was piloting the black lion towards the neighboring planet, the old Alesia, with Ariela and Anferum each at one of his sides.

“So, how does this work?”

“Alesia has a very peculiar environment, which a normal human wouldn’t survive. Need of survival will trigger Ariela’s Alesian genes so that she can shapeshift to survive,” Anferum explained.

“Right.” He turned towards the woman on his right, who was staring hole into Black’s screen. “Are you sure you want to do this, Ariela?”

She nodded instantly. “It doesn’t matter how much I train. If every Galra soldier I face is obscenely stronger and faster than me, I will end up running out of luck and losing. I can’t count on Coran saving me every time.”

“But we can think some other way. There’s no need for you to…, change,” he said, landing the Black Lion on top of what seemed like grey and dirty sand. 

“It’s okay, Shiro. I want this,” she told him, squeezing his shoulder as if he was the one that needed reassuring. “Thank you for coming with me.”

“No problem.” He stood up from the pilot’s chair and rested his weight on the console. “So. How are we doing this?” He turned to look at Anferum, who was awkwardly playing with one of his dreadlocks, all his dedication poured into avoiding Ariela’s eyes.

“We go outside. Ariela takes off her helmed and breathes the air. It will poison her body, and her blood will repel it.”

Shiro turned to look at her. “It’s going to posion you?”

“Shiro…”

“That’s going to hurt, Ariela.”

“I know, but I’ll be okay, right?” Anferum nodded. “Then lets do it.”

Shiro wanted to object, but if what had happened the day before wasn’t proof enough that Ariela would do whatever the hell she wanted no matter what he said, then nothing could be. Instead he grabbed his helmet and put it on, stomping away from the cockpit to the door.

Black let the ramp down and they were instantly met with the force of a furious wind and an air charged with electric energy. Shiro could feel his hair standing.

Ariela walked behind him and Anferum, tapping her fingers against her breastplate and humming a song Shiro recognized from somewhere but he couldn’t quite pinpoint.

“Are you ready, paladin?” Anferum asked, once they were a few feet away from the Black Lion. Shiro watched as Ariela raised her shaky hands to grip her helmet, and something rushed him to put a hand on top of hers. The woman looked at him with surprised eyes, waiting.

“If it turns too much… You tell me and I’ll take you back to the lion, okay?” Ariela gulped and nodded, before taking her helmet off and handing it to Shiro. If her curly hair normally looked all spongy, with all the static in the air and the wind she looked like Storm from the X-men.

Ariela inhaled and blinked, confused, at the new sensation. She felt the familiar feeling of her skin breaking a sweat as what felt like gravel filled her lungs. The air smelt of something similar to methane gas, and it scared her, the fear contributing to the increasing dizziness that was blurring her vision.

She tilted to a side and Shiro was quick to hold her. “Are you okay?” His voice sounded muffled now that she didn’t have the comms to hear him clearly.

She nodded, frowning when she couldn’t find her voice. It was almost as if her body knew that her voice would come out all weird and wrecked if she spoke right now. 

The wind was pushing sand onto her skin, the thousands of tiny needles going from a small bother to painful as she felt herself become more and more weak.  
Her lungs ached. She wasn’t receiving any oxygen.

The muscles of her neck tensed as she tried to take in a breath, the inhale sounding as if she were choking. She didn’t realize what she was looking for when her hand moved to the side, until she managed to grasp Shiro’s left hand after a few tries.

She let out a weak groan as a big wave of dizziness pushed her back, sending her tumbling to the sand.

“Ariela!”

“She’s okay. It usually takes time,” Anferum said, quick to stop Shiro from picking her up and taking her away.  
Small lightnings of pain started shooting through Ariela’s body from her lungs and her muscles started to ache. She gripped Shiro’s hand tighter and whined. She couldn’t feel the droplets of sweat running down her face nor the way blood had drained from her face.

It was a slow buildup of pain, until it reached the point it felt as if she was being burnt from the inside out. She wanted to scream, but her voice had left her, so she could only try to breathe and squeeze Shiro’s hand.

He started shaking his head. “I don’t think it’s working,” he said.

“Look!” Anferum pointed at Ariela’s eyes. It took a few seconds for Shiro to notice, but the color of her irises had changed from dark amber to glowing gold. Those eyes could probably shine in the dark. “Hmm. That’s an odd color.”

Ariela slowly laid down on the sand and curled up on herself until she was a tight ball of pain. Sobs were wrecking through her body, and her vision was spotting. 

She felt as if something had stabbed her on the sternum and she was able to take in a deep breath. It hurt like hell, feeling as if she had swallowed acid, but she could breathe again.

“FUCK!” she yelled before letting out a blood-curling scream.

“Ariela!” Shiro yelled, trying to turn her body around, doing so just in time to catch how her eyes rolled back into her skull to never return. She suddenly stopped moving, still as a rock, and a thread of something that looked like black blood started streaming out of her nose. The howling wind was the only thing they could hear.

“That… is not supposed to happen,” Anferum murmured.

Then Ariela started shaking violently. It took Shiro a few seconds to realize that she was convulsing.

“Oh, God!” he let go of her to place her on top of the sand and hold her down so that she wouldn’t hurt herself. “Put her helmet on!”

Anferum scrambled for it and managed to put it on after a few tries. Shiro pressed her down with his body so that he could use his hand to switch on the no-atmosphere mode.   
“Please, please, please.”

After a few terrifying seconds, Ariela stopped shaking, but she went worryingly limp. Anferum pointed at her neck, and Shiro saw how her veins were slowly turning black.

“We need to take her to the healers, now.”

# . . .

Lance was doing yoga when someone practically knocked his door down with how hard they rapped.

“Who is it?” he asked, not breaking his lifted thunderbolt pose. 

“LANCE! OPEN UP! IT’S URGENT!”

He frowned, slowly dropping down to the floor. “Andra?” He ran to the door and opened it, being met with a worried looking Menosforean.

“Lance! I was talking with Feer and a message came in! It’s your sister!” they explained. They sounded out of breath, as if they had sprinted all the way, and Lance didn’t like that one bit.

“What happened?” he asked, grabbing them by the shoulders. Andra just shook their head.

“I don’t know, but the black paladin was taking her to the healers.” They looked at him with big soulful eyes. “It didn’t sound good, Lance.”

For a few seconds, he just stood under the threshold, frozen in fear. Then he grabbed Andra’s hand and bolted through the hallway, telling them to lead him to the healers because he didn’t know the way.

When they got there, it was all screams and people running around.

“HOLD HER DOWN!” someone yelled, and Lance spotted Shiro, Anferum and Hunk holding down Ariela, who was shaking on top a tall bed in the middle of the room. The Menosforean that had yelled were a dark green and were wearing a deep blue robe, and they were holding a big syringe filled with a rose gold liquid.

Lance ran to the bed when he let go of Andra’s hand. His heart stopped, and he stopped hearing his blood thrumming on his ears when he saw his sister’s state. Ariela was as pale as a vampire, and through her veins ran something thick and dark that was pouring out of her nose and mouth too.

“No,” he whispered. “No, no, please, no-“

The doctor nailed the syringe in Ariela’s neck and pushed the liquid in, and Lance watched how her veins slowly started to clear out and she stopped shaking.

Shiro slowly let go of one of her arms and gave a few steps back in shock before anger crossed his face and he looked up at Anferum. “WHAT HAPPENED?”

The Alesian looked at him in equal parts fear and confusion, his long ears sticking to his skull as his head sank low.

“I-I don’t know. I was absolutely sure that she would make it without an issue I-“

Lance stopped him with a fist to the face, catching the edge of his mouth and busting one of the lips, because when he pulled back his hand there was blood staining his skin.

“IF SHE DOESN'T MAKE IT, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!”

Arms wrapped around his own and Hunk pulled him away, trying to whisper comforting words into his ears, trying to talk over Lance’s incoherent yells.

“IF HE IS NOT GOING TO BEHAVE I WILL ASK YOU TO GET OUT!” the doctor yelled.

Allura and Pidge rounded the corner just when someone slammed the door on Lance’s face. Allura was panting and Lance had never seen her so scared before. “Feer told us something happened,” she breathed out.

Shiro lowered his head before stepping away from the door. “I don’t know what happened. She suddenly started convulsing and something black started coming out of her nose… I should have stopped her, or taken her back to my lion sooner…”

“It’s not your fault, Shiro. She went willingly, and the one that told us it was safe was Anferum. If something goes wrong, and I’m sure nothing will, it would be him the one to blame it on.”

The whole conversation was like background noise for Lance who couldn’t seem to take his eyes away from the door, as if Ariela were going to open it any second now and say that it was all a very elaborate prank.

“We just have to wait for a little while. In no time they will tell us what the problem is and how they will solve it.”

The door opened and Lance came face to face with another Menosforean, wearing a lighter blue robe.

“I’m sorry to bother you, but does any of you know if the Black warrior has a twin?” they asked, looking between the crew that had gathered around the door.

All eyes turned to Lance.

“Uhm…” he started. “No. She has two younger sisters. Why?”

The seemed-to-be-nurse’s eyes darkened a little, and they just nodded before closing the door again.

# . . .

“Just like Anferum thought, the Black warrior did have the blood needed for the shift. The problem was her arima.” The doctor was calmly explaining to them in a separate room. Ariela had been stabilized and the problem had been located, but it seemed to be quite serious.

“What’s the arima?” Pidge asked, frowning. “Humans don’t have that… thing?”

Allura turned to her with a solemn expression. “Arimas aren’t exactly part of the body. They are the quintessence that a being claims as their own. Something like a soul, but much more important. Depending on how big and strong your arima is, the more protected you are from the universe’s quintessence.”

The doctor nodded. They sat down on a small wooden stool as they pressed a button, and four images appeared in front of him. It took him a while to recognize his, Shiro’s, Hunk’s and Pidge’s siluetes. Effectively, something that could be interpreted as an aura was surrounding them.

“That’s the normal size for a human arima depending on what we gathered from you,” the doctor explained, pointing out the distance between the body and the end of the arima, that reached almost a foot in all the images. They pressed the button again and a single imagine showed up. “This… is the black warrior’s.”

The distance between Ariela’s siluete and the end of her arima was a few inches only.

“It’s so small,” Allura gasped out, covering her mouth with both her hands.

“It is abnormally small, even between different species. Although it is also abnormally strong, this size is worrying, which lead us to consider two options.” They pressed the button again and the image disappeared before the doctor turned to face them again. “When twins are born, what originally was going to be a single arima splits to be shared, which results in smaller arimas. It renders the bearers weaker but is harmless by default.”

“That’s why you asked us if she had a twin,” Shiro murmured.

The doctor nodded. “But, I’m afraid that she does not have one, so that leaves us with the other option: she has a rare condition… Well, rare here. The arima is attacked by so much neutral energy that it starts losing its link to the body and becoming neutral too. It either stops by leaving the arima weak, or by the bearer’s death.”

Lance’s head fell and Hunk quickly pulled his friend in, trying to focus on comforting him and instead of thinking about how they’ve just been told that Ariela could die.

“Why wasn’t she able to change, though?” Shiro asked.

Allura answered again. “Shapeshifting species, and those who have alchemic abilities or ‘magic’ are those who have the power to control their arimas at will. It’s almost as if we were a loom, and we re-designed ourselves or what’s around us. She didn’t have enough quintessence of her own to allow the change to happen.”

“Okay.” Shiro nodded, before turning to the doctor once more. “Is there a way to know if it will stop before…, before killing her?”

The doctor shook their head. “Only time can tell. I’m sorry.”

# . . .

The first thing Ariela was aware of was that her brain felt as if it were wrapped around cotton strings. Then came the throat ache, then the ache all over her body.

And then the sound of many different heartbeats, overwhelmingly strong and different scents, and this weird nagging sensation that traveled from her nape to her torso, pulling at her heart and stomach and making her feel sad.

She sniffed, slowly and painfully stirring awake.

“Ariela?”

She winced at the volume of the voice, hissing. But the nagging feeling went away, and she felt a surprise that seemed foreign.

“Hello there,” she murmured, voice raspy and her tongue sticking to her palate because of how dry her mouth was. “Can I have some water?”

Someone helped her sit up as she slowly opened her eyes to discover that colours seemed brighter and deeper. Everyone but Keith and Coran were standing around her, looking at her with either sad or worried expressions. Lance pushed a glass of water to her lips and she drank greedily. 

“Hmm,” she hummed in pleasure after she finished off her second glass. “What’s with the faces?”

Lance, who looked like he had been crying, turned to look her in the eye. “Please tell me you happen to have a long-lost twin sibling,” he said, trying to sound as if he was joking, but his voice cracked.

Frowning, Ariela’s head tilted to the left before she answered. “No. I had a twin sister, but she died during childbirth. Why?”

Allura’s shoulders went stiff and Shiro’s head shot up.

“Are you kidding?” Pidge asked with a high-pitched voice that made her wince again.

“No, damnit. Can we keep the volume down? You’re gonna give me headache at this pace,” she said, pressing her fingers to her temples.

“Ariela. Are you sure that you had a twin sister?” Hunk pressed, grabbing her by the shoulders.

“YES, /CARAJO/, I HAD A TWIN SISTER. WHY THE SHIT IS IT SO IMPORTANT FOR FUCKS SAKE?”

Lance snorted, burying his head in his hands as sobs wrecked through his body. “Of course you had a sister that you ate in the womb.”

“She died during birth. I didn’t eat her,” Ariela corrected him, annoyed, stressing each word. “Can someone tell me what is going on?”

Shiro gave a few steps forward. He looked the worse for wear, but now he had a giant smile crossing his face. “We took you to Alesia and your body started to change, but then it stopped so you almost died, and then we found out that you either had a twin or a disease that would soon kill you.”

“I’m so glad it was the twin you ate in the womb,” Lance said, before hugging her tightly.

This close, Ariela was able to notice that one of the many scents that she could smell was coming from Lance. There was a strong lavender-like one coming from his hair, but then there was something on his skin that screamed ‘Lance’ in her head; it smelt like sea breeze and… warm sand, somehow.

“Please explain later. I’m kind of overwhelmed now,” she said, her voice muffled on Lance’s shoulder. 

“Oh, yes. Anferum said that you might feel weird. Although your body didn’t change enough for you to be able to shapeshift, you are a little bit stronger and faster, and your senses will probably be sharper now,” Allura said. She was looking at the display of sibling love with warm eyes and hands firmly clasped on her lap.

“Yeah. Also, you grew like… A lot.”

“What?”

As Hunk had said, she had, indeed, grown a lot. When she had first met Shiro she barely reached his chest, but now she was a able to reach his shoulders. And her body was not the only thing that had grown; the hair all over her body was longer and thicker than it had ever been, her curls even curlier now. Well, farewell brushing in the mornings. And she was going to have to lock herself up in a huge comfy bathroom and take her sweet time to shave off all the hair that had grown long and thick everywhere… And also do her eyebrows. 

“Oh, /Goooood/,” she huffed as she turned and twisted in front of the mirror, Lance standing faithfully behind her. She was also now covered in an infinity of stretch-marks. The only plus was that her butt was little bit bigger (which she loved), but her boobs were all the same.

“Stop whining, you’re fine,” Lance said, jokingly pushing her with the tip of his shoe. “Do you even have in mind that you almost died?”

Of course she did. It was hard to forget when this new and awkwardly weird sixth sense she had kept showering her with the feelings of her teammates, which were all about relief and happiness… Excepting Keith. Curiously enough, he was the one she could feel the best when there wasn’t this ‘blockage’ between them, and all she felt was fear, a big, fat and dark fear that made her blood run cold and her breath catch on her throat.

For some reason, though, this new sixth sense told her that no one could know about this.

Allura had explained it to her. Any species or race where socialization was vital tended to form packs; the specific term varied between different groups, but it was always the same on its essence: a group of sentient beings that share so much they create quintessential bonds that can transcend through time and space, through which they can feel each other. Depending on the beings, they will be able to sense and interpret this bond in different ways. Alesians, being inflection points in quintessence and al that jeez, could almost hear their packmate’s thoughts. Humans perceived the bond more as a hunch or intuitions apparently, and because they had no control and knowledge over the bond, everything that went through it was un-edited, raw, and /pure/ emotion.

Keith, somehow, seemed able to control not /what/ went through the bond, but /when/ things went through. Last night, Ariela had woken up in the middle of the night, crying because she feared that /they/ would leave her alone all over again. It had felt so real that it took her some time to realize those thoughts and feelings weren’t hers. 

Ariela needed to talk to her favourite red paladin about this. She had to wait, though.

Feer and Allura both insisted that, just in case, Ariela should remain under medical surveillance and take advantage of Anferum’s presence to adapt to being an Alesian… Or half-Alesian, or whatever. Ariela really wanted to go back to the castle, so she put up a little bit of resistance; her sudden outbursts of foreign emotions and the way she kept bumping ad breaking things and hurting people on accident because she wasn’t used to her new body managed to fuck her over and so the team stayed over at Menosfor for four more days in addition to the three she had been unconscious. Plus, Allura wanted to wait until a fleet of Balmeran warships arrived to protect Menosfor during Voltron’s absence and help them elaborate new technologies.

“We are so sorry for all the inconvenient caused. When the war is over you /must/ visit and we will repay you with one of the greatest feasts there will ever be,” Feer told Allura with a bright smile on their face as they shook hands. 

“Oh, please. We were only doing our jobs,” Allura replied, being the personification of grace and selflessness.

“Hopefully, the war will be over soon so that we can come back and take you up on that offer,” Lance added, winking playfully at Andra and Lir, who were standing next to their ruler.

“It was a pleasure staying here with you. You have been great hosts.” Shiro nodded and gifted a small smile to Feer, although it was a little strained. No one blamed him. Everyone knew Keith was practically his little brother, and he had refused to let Shiro in all the times he had visited, so the man was only growing more uneasy about Keith’s illness. Besides, he had told Ariela that he wanted to talk to her about the offer, and she knew that the mere idea of opening up seemed to terrify him, so that was more than a reason to feel uncomfortable.

Allura managed to keep the farewell short but cordial, and in a few minutes the four paladins were flying their lions into the already soaring ship. A few minutes more, and they were resting in their bedrooms.

Ariela was looking at her reflection again, frowning at the stretch marks that showed were her shorts didn’t cover when someone knocked on the metal panels. “It’s open!” she said, scrambling to her desk and picking up a random book to look like she was doing something productive.

The double doors slid open and Shiro slowly stepped into the room, dedicating her one of the most awkward salutes she had ever seen. “Hey, there,” he said softly.

Smiling, she let down the book she had been holding upside-down and sat straight on the chair. “Hey there yourself. How you doing?” She pointed at the bed for Shiro to sit down and, after pacing awkwardly for a few seconds, he sat down with a huff.

“I’ve—I’ve been thinking about what you said. How talking would help me… get over it,” he started, wiping his hands on his thighs. “I think I could try. But… Could it be like…, no commitment? I only come when I want to talk?”

Ariela’s heart clenched. He looked scared and he felt scared, she knew because fo the bond. It reminded her of her first few sessions with a therapist, after what had happened with her father. Even if she knew that it would do her better to talk, and sometimes she had the ravaging need to bawl in someone’s lap and re-tell the whole tale, her throat would close up and she would lock herself up in her room.

“I know it can be hard at first, Shiro. If I let you come only when you want this will go much slower.” His head fell and he started to scratch at his metal arm with his nail. “I’ll tell you what,” she started, using a cheerful tone. “We can meet wherever you want, every day after lunch. Okay? And we will talk about anything you want. It doesn’t need to be about Kerberos or what came after.”

With that she managed to catch Shiro’s attention the good way, and he slowly lifted his head to look at her. “Whatever I want?”

She nodded, pushing her levitating chair closer to the bed. “Yeah. You can teach me astrophysics or tell me about your favourite show back on Earth. And, of course, I will talk about my own stuff too, so that we can get to know each other!”

He looked at his hands, now still on his lap, for a while as he thought it over, before nodding slowly. “Okay. Sounds like a good plan to start with.”

# . . .

Keith’s body was on fire, and that was the only thing he could think of right now.

At the beginning he had been more in control, or at least /felt/ more in control, of the change. He had fought his own body to stop the colour from spreading, the only visible change for himself, but then when the aching on his bones started he couldn’t focus on it any more, and his body did whatever the hell it wanted.

Everything that had happened since that was a blur. He had locked himself up right after the fight with the Galra; he had been feeling like shit the last days, and during the fight he had noticed he felt more aggressive than usual before the pain shots started. He believed he had had it in check for almost a day before everything went to shit.

Now he was a little bit better. He was still running a high fever and his hole body ached, but at least he wasn’t screaming in pain anymore. 

He whined, feeling how something stuck to his head as he curled himself up in a pitiful ball of pain. He eyed his bedroom, completely destroyed; he didn’t exactly remember tearing apart clothes, blankets and pillows, and he also didn’t remember causing those three dents in the metal walls and doors, but they were there now.

His new sensitive hearing picked up on the whirring of something mechanical and he covered his head with the blankets, whining. Then, he heard the doors sliding open as best as they could, being broken as they were, and two sets of footsteps.

“Keith, buddy?” he heard someone say. And then a gasp.

“Hmm?” In his hazed state he completely forgot about the hole thing that had made him hide in his room, so he carelessly uncovered himself to see who had walked in, only to meet Shiro’s horrified gaze. “Shiro…” he started as the pieces slowly started falling back into place, but then a hand on his throat sat him up and pressed him against the wall of his bed, choking him.

“Who are you?” Shiro started, words coming out through his gritted teeth as he stared down at Keith with an anger he had never seen. “And what did you do to my brother?”


	9. [NOT UPDATED]

Menosfoir was a wealthy planet. It had really good crops, a vast culture and many erudites. Precious stones and metals abunded in that place, and it had no good military. That was the reason they had such a strong alliance with the neighbouring planet, Malteia, as they were incredible warriors, but needed Menosfoir to survive because their environment was so rough hardly anything could live in it, making population die from starvation and dehydration before the alliance with the neighbouring planet started.

Once the Galra took down Malteia, the other planet was easy peasy. They were exploding it as they had done with the Balmera and, although this one seemed to have a bigger life span than the other, the planet would start crumbling in a few decades if the taking without giving continued. The natives were slaves that had to work the lands or help Zarkon's empire to develop new intelligence.

The team met in the control deck and went over a plan to smash the Galra forces over and over, everyone discussing the kinds of weapons they would be encountering and the easiest way to take them down. They would start with taking down the land weapons, so they wouldn't have to worry about the bloodiest fight being on the planet's surface, and then they would take care of the air force using Voltron. And, although at the beginning two or three people thought keeping the panther on its hangar until it was strictly necessary using it was the best option, Ariela and the panther ended up being on the outlook too, as the 'special tactic team'. Until her name was put on the table, all the debate was like white noise to the woman, that was just starting to feel how the reality of her situation sank into her skin.

"Are you ready to kick some Galra ass?" Lance asked, over the intercom, as Ariela sat on her pilot seat and started checking on everything instinctively, the panther's energy guiding her hands through buttons and levers and switches. Although Keith and her brother had explained her more than the basics of piloting, she felt that instinct and the panther commanded more than the 60% of her actions.

"No," she deadpanned, as the panther grumbled pleased to the thought of a good fight.

"Okay team, let's go," Shiro said, and everyone was out the Castle of Lions.

Ariela's skin was tickling all over, breathing starting to raise just as the beating of her heart, but it was not fear, it was anxiety. She didn't know which one was worse.

The silent buzz of the propellers calmed her a little bit, and the beautiful sight of stars and other near planets around her left her breathless. Reassuringly, Lance made his lion fly near the panther. Soon they passed the planet's atmosphere, momentarily blinded by clouds, and she was amazed with a beautiful sight. What seemed a giant tropical forest covered all the surface, buildings raising above the trees, waterfalls creating rainbows everywhere, and birds flying all around them. The sky they were flying on was blue, except for some big clouds that casted shadows on the beautiful scenery.

The panther immediately marked all the Galra installations, and it sort of turned into a game of who could destroy more before they were all over. She failed miserably, as she could only blow up three installations that didn't seem important, the Voltron team already used to the way Galra automatised weapons worked and knowing how to destroy them. The noises of explosions sometimes made her jump on her seat, and the panther would laugh on her mind.

There was no real rush, Ariela felt more challenged when fighting against Keith or Shiro, to be honest, but then she felt something in the back of her brain that made her violently pull the controllers and turn to the left, evading a laser ray that was meant to blow her up.

"The ships are here!" Pidge shouted, as the panther turned around and saw how a fleet of Galra small and big ships got near them. They were all different shades of purple, and Ariela quirked an eyebrow as the ships soon enough stopped paying attention to her and jumped onto the lions.

The discomfort of the panther immediately went away and it purred content.

It has been such a long time it thought, and Ariela could feel her mind fusing with its even more. The panther's body turned into her body too, and she was too aware of how sharp her claws were and how strong her jaws were, wanting to hear the metal of the Galra ships crashing between her teeth.

"Let's make them regret being born," was all she said, before flying the panther to the middle of the fleet and starting her individual attack, as the lions formed Voltron.  
She was sure it had startled them. The Galra didn't know about a sixth robot that could fuck them up, so Ariela took that to her advantage and attacked when the ships were too busy either evading or attacking Voltron. It was something amazing to see in the front row, how the five lions linked up to form a giant robot, but it didn't compare to the way she was feeling.

A weird thrill she had never felt was running through all her body, making her shudder. She felt her skin too tight, and her body was a little bit lighter, almost as if she was flooding out of her meat vessel. Her eyes seemed to catch everything with more definition and there was no doubt when she decided what to do.

She was smashing the panther against a small ship at the same time she lasered one of the big ones when an audio from the main Galra ship was broadcasted to them. The rush suddenly stopped running through her body and she felt drained. Galra ships stopped their attack, just as Voltron did, retreating near the surface, before being stopped by a small fleet.

"This wasn't part of the training," was all she said, as she watched how the rest of the team was just as confused as she was in the panther's screen.

"Answer." It was Shiro's voice and he sounded really tense.

" _Team Voltron. This is Captain Protor speaking. We advise you to give up, as we have taken our slaves as hostages, and we will be killing one of them for every minute you continue to put up a fight_ ," a rough voice said, leaving all the team frozen in mild panic.

The woman felt a wave of panic and anxiety rushing through her brain, but it was quickly shut down by the panther, as it grumbled. She was going to complain, tell it that she didn't like it when she controlled her brain, but it was the right thing to do. She couldn't think clearly while panicking.

All she was certain of was that they could not give up.

"What are we going to do?" Hunk asked, making Ariela frown.

"Keep fighting," she answered, matter of factly.  
"We can't let that people die, Ariel," Shiro said. "Allura, do you know where they are keeping the hostages?" he asked.

"Yes. It is underground. The robots don't fit on the passage and it's protected by at least five Galra soldiers, not counting their stupid robots that cannot be scanned by our sensors," the princess said. A collective groan was heard, making Ari more confused.

"There's no way they'll let Voltron get near that place," Keith groaned, clearly furious. "And we can't dissolve, they'll get us."

 _How confident are you with your individual combat skills?_ the panther asked, its voice revealing how seriously it was taking the whole deal, surprising the woman, who started to think.

"Well, I've never fought against a Galra soldier before, but I managed to pin Shiro down," was her answer, and the whole team turned their eyes to her face on their screens.

"You almost pinned me down," Shiro said, but Ariela shushed him.

 _I could get you to the entrance and, as long as you don't go too far, keep fighting on my own while you take down the soldiers and free the hostages_ the panther said.

"You can actually fight without me?" Ariela asked.

"Who is she talking to?" Keith followed.

"Allura, can the panther act without its paladin?" the woman insisted, ignoring the rest of the team.

"Well, the panther and the paladin are the only things they have, so they were both designed to be able to at least resist without one another. As long as you don't lose the bond with it, the panther is able to put up a fight," the princess answered. "What are you two thinking about?"

"Okay, this is what we'll do. I will get in the tunnels where they are keeping the prisoners in less than a minute and take down the Galra soldiers. Whatever happens, don't dissolve Voltron and don't let them get you," Ariela said, as she piloted the panther over the coordinates Allura was sending her.

"Oh hell no, young lady. This is your first mission, you are not going to face something like that alone," Lance complained, making her put on a disgust face.

"Lance, I'm four years older than you," she replied, as she got in between the trees and left the panther in the ground, next to the entrance of a cave. "Is there something I can use to go faster?" she asked.

 _You'll get along with it pretty well, I hope_ the panther said, as she went out of it and something that looked like a motorbike with no weels and a place to put your hands in instead of a handle. Surprisingly, it was white.

Ariela slid her left leg over the seat and laid down on her stomach, putting her arms on the holes and discovering she had to burry them to the elbows, feeling something like a big ball she could turn. Her legs soon found their way into some support place and she rolled the ball forward, the bike starting off and going at full speed.

" _¡Ay, la puta madre que me parió!_ " she screamed, noticing how sudden the drop of the cave was, and hoping this thing didn't smash suddenly against the ground. Gladly, it didn't.

"Forty seconds, Ariela," Hunk sang on the intercom, and she dared to speed up.

The cave was a blur around her, barely illuminated by the weird shine of her bike's propellers.

"The Galra are in the next turn," Allura warned her, and the woman slowed down to a stop, getting down from the motorbike with wobbly legs and walking towards the entrance of a cavern, hearing voices talking in a different language. She peeked her head into the cavern and saw thousands of native people from Menosfoir (humanoid creatures, but with no hair or noses, reddish skin and big green eyes), one of them on their knees with the cannon of a Galra gun against the back of their head.

The Galra soldiers were chatting among themselves, barely paying attention to the slaves around them, probably waiting for a message to execute the hostage and grab another.  
Her breathing caught in her throat when she saw them. They were freaking-tall-furries, with batlike ears, their whole bodies purple. So that was why they had an obsession with that colour.  
S  
She hid behind the rock wall again and started taking deep breaths, studying her surroundings and thinking about the situation.

The cave was really humid around her, water drops falling from the ceiling and creating a calming cacophony, and a strange tight sensation on her brain was botherin her, as she thought of her next move. When she felt a flash of anger and wildness in that tight part, she noticed it was the place that had fused with the panther, making her feel how they were apart in the middle of the battle, making her uncomfortable. It felt unnatural not being on the robot. The light that came out of torches hanging from the rock ceiling made the shadows dance, giving the whole place a movie like environment.

Ariela grabbed her bayard and thought of the weapon. Coran had explained to her that, as the panther's paladin usually worked alone and couldn't have the luxury of specializing in just one kind of weapon, her bayard had a variety of weapons it could turn to. In that moment, she thought of something that could be used to attack from a distance.  
It turned into some sort of space pistol, and she weighted it in her hands.

"Fifteen seconds," Hunk warned, voice hurried, and Ariela lifted the pistol and shot.

A small ray of energy came out flying and went through the neck of the Galra that held the gun against the slave. His partner suffered the same destiny as he turned around to attack whoever had shot. The menosforeans quickly began to murmur and cover themselves, but didn't move in fear.

She was easily spotted by the other three, and Ariela turned her bayard into a khopesh for her right hand, as she talked in the intercom.

"I just took down two of them, keep attacking. They are focusing on me now," she said to them and, almost immediately, Shiro's voice was heard shouting instructions and warnings.

Ariela run towards the Galra that was nearest her and brandished her sword, intercepting the enemy's arm and cutting it off, causing a yelp of pain before going through the soldier's neck. She was grabbed from behind while the dead body fell to the floor, and she stopped the peak of a spear going through her stomach with the armour of her legs, before kicking the Galra soldier that was holding her in the nuts.

He let her go with a groan, and she attacked the one in front of her, making her sword go through his throat, growling at the effort she had to make to go through bone.  
Something punched Ariela in the right arm and she heard a crack before screaming in intense pain. She could hear Lance's worried voice over her own pants and grunts, as the only Galra soldier left came near her, pointing at her with a gun.

"You put a decent fight, I must say. It's a pity I have to kill you, you would have made a fine gladiator," the soldier said , with a smug grin, as the gun loaded.  
Ariela rolled to her left, picking up the bayard in the progress and turning it into a khopesh for her left hand. She stood up, jumping before a ray of energy could get her in the legs, and made the sword cut the Galra soldier's throat open.

She felt as that time she had gone into some sort of trance when practicing with the panther, barely concious of anything excepting the enemy, not even concious of her own body. But when she knew the five soldiers were dead, she started to slowly come back to reality, noticing she had been producing a low grumbling sound somehow, and that the menosforeans were looking at her with wide green eyes, not knowing if she was a friend or another enemy.

Her breathing was raged and her arm hurt like hell.

"Ariela, are you okay?" Shiro asked, for the ninth time, and she finally felt the ability to speak come back to her body.

"I took the five down, broke my arm in the process. Probably going to need someone to pick me up," she said, as she slowly sat down on the stone grown, green eyes following her every move. "Greetings, people from Menosfoir," was the first thing she said.

One of them took a step forward and stood in front of the whole, trying to look intimidating, and putting himself between Ariela and the rest. They had several tattoos (that clearly talked about war and bravery) covering his thin and long body, he was only wearing something like bagged pants made out of a horrible material.

"Are you here to kill us all, warrior?" they asked, and Ariela started to shake her head furiously.

"No. We are here to free you. I'm with Voltron, a team that's standing up to the Galra empire. Voltron is taking the whole fleet down at this exact moment," she answered, and smiled when almost every menosforean relaxed. "I'm Ariela, by the way. Nice to meet you."

# ***

Half an hour later, the whole team was running towards her with worried faces, the sound of their steps rising through the quiet conversations the menosforeans were having.

She had managed to make the hostages sit down and listen to the story of Voltron, sometimes stopping because the pain was making her vision fill with little black dots. She had broken her arm before, and it wasn't supposed to hurt that bad.

Hunk was the one to pick her up, as Allura told him to take her to the healing pods. The guy looked at her with a smile, before noticing her pupils had a weird shape, but he decided it was just a trick of the light and shrugged it off.

"Jesus christ. Adrenaline wearing off is not something good," she said, as she rested her head against Hunk's chest and closed her eyes.

Lance was eyeing the Galra bodies lying on the ground. They were all dead and surrounded by pools of dark blood. He frowned as he thought of the pastel woman that had made that bloody mess and fought with a broken arm. He knew what she was capable of, for he had seen her in violent situations many times, but she had never pictured her as someone that would kill without hesitation.

Well. He had done it too, after all.

Shiro got near him as Allura spoke with her royalty tone to the menosforeans, and put his Galra hand on his shoulder, before squeezing slightly.

"I have to tell you. I never imagined she could do something like this when I saw her for the first time," he whispered, watching how blood still flowed weakly from a completely open neck.

"That's why I was so certain when I told you," Lance said with a little smile. He frowned, looking around. "Where is Keith?"

"He said he didn't feel too well and went to the Castle of Lions to rest," Shiro said. "We will probably be staying here for a few days, as the castle reloads energy and Allura deals with all the diplomatic stuff, so everyone will have time to recover," he continued.

"How long will she have to be in the pod?" Lance asked.

"I don't think more than a few hours. Don't worry."

# ***

She felt really cold and sore and awful. The images of her killing the Galra soldiers replayed themselves over and over again, making her feel her gut twisting and her palms sweating. It was as if she was trapped in some sort of swirl that only made her feel worse.

Ariela wanted to cry. She had killed five aliens and broken her arm. It was a shitty day. Although a content rumbling on her brain kind of kept her from shedding tears, as she slept on the healing pod.

When the doors opened and she stumbled out of the thing it was already dark outside. She took a step forward and fell face first to the floor, as Lance had decided to sleep directly in front of the healing pod, not thinking of how that could make her fall when she got out.

There were a few seconds of mild chaos in between them, none of the two paladins actually knowing what was going on because they had just woken up, but knowing there was a slight pain in a part of their bodies and that someone had yelped. Lance was the first one to react, getting out from under Ariela and helping her up.

"I don't think I have ever wanted to kill you more than a few hours ago," was the first thing he said, hugging her close and slightly swaying from side to side.

"I know. But I saved the day, right?" she asked, smiling against her brother's chest and closing her eyes, the warmth of Lance's body feeling nice against her own cold one, that was slowly starting to recover its normal temperature.

"You should have a shower and change. The menosforeans invited us to stay for a few days in their palace, now that they have taken it back," he told her, parting away and looking at her once more. "Oh, by the way. You might want to talk to your panther. It's not that something bad happened, but Blue noticed him a little bit uneasy." Ariela frowned.

"He? Blue?" she asked, looking at Lance with narrowed eyes.

"Oh, yeah. You are not the only one with a super strong bond with their lion. Blue is mine, and she told me that your panther is a dude and that he was uneasy," he clarified.

"Okay then. I'll go get a shower and go to talk to it..., him," she replied as she nodded, starting the walk to her room.

# ***

The panther was pacing around his hangar, rumbling lowly. He stopped the second he felt Ariela's presence get near and turned to look at the woman. She was wearing a white summer dress with blue flowers, and her blue flower crown. The panther purred when he notices she was safe and sound, getting near and nuzzling the tip of his snout against her stomach with care.

The things that flowed to Ariela's mind were not words, but feelings. It was something really animalistic, that could only be translated into repeating the phrases 'Worried, I was so worried' and 'Safe and healthy' over and over, a feeling of warmth and happiness spreading over her chest and stomach.

"Hey there. I didn't know you cared so much about me," she laughed, tiredly rubbing the smooth metal.

 _Fighting together only strengthens our bond. I could feel your pain when you got hurt_ he explained to her, looking at her with robotic eyes but she knew that, if they were alive, they would be expressing seriousness and worry.

"Oh," was all she said, as she sat down on the floor and caressed the robot in silence for a few minutes. "Lance told me that Blue told him that you were a guy," she blurted, making the panther tilt his head to a side.

 _Yeah, I'm a male. So?_ he asked, confused. Ariela shrugged.

"I don't know. Just wanted to share the information I learnt with you," she answered, looking around. "Do you have a name?" she questioned, looking at him again.

 _Besides from panther, not that I know_ he answered.

"Can I give you a name?"

There was a pause.

 _I'll hear your ideas_ he answered, lying on the floor and resting his head in between his legs. Ariela imitated him, resting her chin on her knees, as she thought for a while, as the panther patiently looked at her, swishing his tail.

"There's a story in my planet, about a boy that grew up in the wild, surrounded by animals. One of his friends was a panther called Bagheera," she said, raising an eyebrow, asking to him with that gesture what he thought.

 _What does the name mean?_ he questioned, rolling to his side.

"It literally means black panther," she answered, smiling as the panther purred.

 _Bagheera it is then_ he said, before sitting back up. _What does your name mean?_

"It depends. For some people it means 'brave' and for others, it means 'lion of God'," she answered as she shrugged.

 _That's funny. You should be piloting one of the lions instead of me_ Bagheera said.

"Nah, they're too vanilla for me," she answered laughing. "Are yo ready to go down and be greeted like a hero?"

_It will certainly be weird. It's the first time I won a fight without killing innocent people._

"They were underground, so don't count this as a victory. But don't worry, we'll work on it."


	10. [NOT UPDATED]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, this chapter has a little of Keith and Ariela back story (and a little bit of Shariela). I hope you like it.

Pidge didn't know how menosforeans...., managed.

In five hours they had already recovered the castle, established who would be ruling now that they had regained control over their planet, they had already started distributing everything the Galra had kept from them and probably more things that the new king was discussing with Allura in that exact moment.

They had invited the paladins to spend a few days at the royal Castle of Menosfoir, a giant structure that reminded the girl of a Maya temple, only that bigger and over the jungle instead of in it. The bedrooms rarely had windows and she soon started to feel claustrophobic. It wasn't the same looking out and seeing void than not being able to look out at all. Besides, they had given them all traditional menosforean clothes, and she was wearing a green long dress.

"Knock, knock," a voice said from outside her bedroom, instead of actually knocking.

"Come in," she said, as she got up from the bed and watched as Ariela entered the grey stone bedroom decorated with several hangings and colourful rocks and plants.

The woman was stunning. The maids had given her a black dress similar to hers, only it had a keyhole neckline instead of her 'U' neckline, and it had needlework in silver thread, while hers was golden. The dress hugged her waist nicely, heightening her features and the way the skirt seemed to flow around her and the cut on the right leg made her legs look spectacular.

Pidge hugged herself, suddenly really conscious of how square she looked in practically the same dress.

"How are you doing?" Ariela asked as she sat beside her in the bed. She was wearing another flower crown, one with white flowers.

"Good. How's your arm?" Pidge asked, trying to make her voice sound cheerful, but she couldn't, and the woman noticed immediately.

"What's wrong?" She was looking at her with a slight frown, an expression that meant 'You have to tell me if you want me to go away'.

"I just miss my clothes. I'm not used to wearing this kind of stuff," she answered, trying to rest it importance with a gesture of her hand. Ariela opened her eyes widely.

"Are you kidding? I mean, I understand you are not used to wearing this kind of clothes, but you look gorgeous!" Ariela said, disbelief staining her voice as she smiled brightly when Pidge blushed.

"You really think so?" she asked, hugging herself even tighter.

"Have you seen in front of a mirror?" was the woman's answer.

They sat in silence for a little longer, not knowing what to do.

"So..., how did you feel on your first mission?" the girl asked, finally turning to the woman. She had a weird expression on her face, a mix of excited and something else that didn't seem good.

"It was..., weird. I liked everything but the part of killing, although I know it was completely necessary and I would do it again," she answered, starting to play with the skirt of her dress. "I got here half an hour ago, and Lance started questioning me about how I felt, and it wasn't because of my arm, you know?"

"It can get hard sometimes," Pidge nodded.

The door opened widely and three heads peeked inside the bedroom in curiosity, before the paladins started flooding the bedroom without asking, just advancing and dropping on Pidge's bed as if she wouldn't kill them with no hesitation.

"How long do you think Allura will talk with that king-guy?" Hunk asked as he dropped on his back, making the bed tremble and the rest of the team laughed. Shiro, who was sitting with his back against the headboard, started talking, when Ariela noticed someone being missing.

"Where's Keith?"

They all rose their heads, but it was Lance who cleared his throat and answered.

"Coran sad he had been overworking himself, and he was feeling sick. They will stay at the Castle of Lions while he recovers," he said, and his sister could notice the worry in his eyes, as he scratched his stomach over the blue tunic they had given him.

"It's weird... Keith never gets sick," Shiro said, crossing his arms over his chest and frowning.

They all looked pretty down and unhappy by the fact that Keith was not there. She had to tell him the next time she saw him.

"So... Shiro, I'm going to have to ask you to change. Black is kind of my colour," Ariela said after a big and awkward silence she didn't know how to get out of at the beginning.

Just as Hunk was wearing a yellow tunic and Lance a blue one, Shiro was wearing one that was black. Just like hers, it had needlework along the (insert Lance's awkward laugh here) v-line neck with silver thread.

"I'm starving. When do you think they'll give us dinner. They dine, right?" Hunk started to ask, and a menosforean appeared on the door, to tell them they would be having dinner and, if they were so kind to follow her, she would lead them to where princess Allura was.

# ***

While they walked, the woman had explained to them that as things were still a little bit messy (Shiro thought she must have been joking) they wouldn't be hosting the big banquet until the next night, so this nights would be something..., pretty chill.

When the woman opened the door, they found a room that looked like a bar.

There were low tables and poufs everywhere, everything with bright colours and there were servants with trays taking food and drinks to everyone in the room. Allura was still speaking with the new king near the soft music, and the paladins would have gotten near if it wasn't because someone suddenly had a knife in Pidge's throat.

It was lighting fast. Two guns, one..., long-ass knife and one prosthetic arm ready to kill pointing at the... What the hell was that?

Again, a humanoid creature, but this had cat-like ears. whiskers, a tail and fur over some parts of its skin. Claws were out, ready to cut someone and the teeth were showing in a muted growl.

"Let her go," Shiro said lowly, with a dangerous voice. Pidge looked at him with surprised eyes, purple light lighting her face.

The music had stopped playing, and everyone was silently looking at the tall alien with red hair and amber eyes and the paladins in dead silence. The king started walking towards them, calling 'Anferum, leave them alone!'. Anferum sniffed the air, looking at Lance with a frown. The king got near them and the alien let go of Pidge but attacked Ariela.

She immediately retreated and deviated the knife with hers, before jumping and avoiding being swept to the floor.

Just as it had happened with Keith, the place became a gladiator arena in seconds, but this had nothing friendly in it, and although people wanted to stop them, no one quite dared. Both fighters moved quite similarly, almost as if they were doing some kind of antique dance that represented a battle instead of actually dying. It reminded Shiro a little bit of _capoeira_.

"Can you please tell her to stop?" the king cried out suddenly, before jumping over the man and knocking him over. It startled the woman a little bit, not knowing what to do now that there was someone in the middle, but the second Anferum pushed the king off of him with something similar to worry, she prepared to attack again. Shiro followed the menosforeans example and grabbed the woman's knife with his right hand, it turning into her bayard when she let go of it.

"Why the hell did you attack me?" she immediately shouted once the man had started to get up, tail swishing restlessly behind his body. His pupils were slitted and he seemed pleased with god knows what.

"I need to discuss something with the king if you excuse me. I hope you enjoy the party," he said while he reverenced, before grabbing the king's hand and pulling him out t the room with much confidence.

Ariela whispered 'Oh no you didn't', but when she was about to follow them Shiro grabbed the back of her dress and held her in place, laughing at the way she tried to keep walking and her feet slid through the floor making a shuffling sound.

"Do you know what just happened, princess?" she asked Allura once she got near, finally accepting the fact that Shiro wouldn't let her go and break the damned guy's face with her fists. The rest of the team had gathered around them too.

"I don't know. The king just told me who he is. He is the last Malteian alive, or that's what we all think. Some escaped before Zarkon got them, but he sent troops to finish them, so we have no idea if they actually survived," she started, fidgeting with her Altean dress. They hadn't given her traditional clothes. "He takes the king's life too seriously. Maybe he saw you as a threat?" she asked, looking around.

Ariela smiled pleased, before smaking Shiro in the pec with a hand and Lance in the shoulder with other, telling them with a smug grin "I am the threat, not you".

"That guy gives me the creeps. I don't want him near you," Hunk growled, surprisingly, as he set one of his hands in each of the latino's shoulders. "Did you see how he looked at Lance? And the way he attacked you instead of Shiro... I think he wants to hurt you two," he explained himself.

"Aww, Hunk. You're so sweet, but I don't think he deliberately wants to hurt us," Ariela said, as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"I don't know, Ari. Last time had a bad feeling about someone he was right," Lance told the woman, jaw squaring while he looked towards the door the Malteian and the menosforean king had used to disappear.

"I say we relax and just enjoy the evening. You deserve it, paladins. You've fought well," Allura said, as she grabbed some glasses from a tray, with a bright blue liquid that looked like neon lights.

"Cheers to the defenders of the universe," Pidge said, raising her glass, as everyone imitated her, before drinking.

# ***

Lance felt too dizzy to his comfort, and the second he started ranting to Ariela about how he was worried about Keith and how he wanted to see him, he had had the sudden realization that, whatever the delicious blue drink was, it had effects similar to alcohol and that he should stay away from it.

He had gotten drunk before; Argentina's legal drinking age was eighteen and he had come of age last summer. So while visiting Ariela in her hometown, they hit a few clubs and he ended up getting drunk alongside with his big sis. She explained to him that he was a crier and a cuddler, while she suddenly loved everyone and her inhibitions just flew out of the window.

Before he accidentally confessed to someone he had a massive crush on his teammate, he decided to head out, maybe even go to his bedroom. He stumbled across the room, leaving Ariela, Shiro and Pidge ranting alone about conspiracy theories while being drunk (yes, Pidge was fucking drunk) and got out, the door closing behind him and almost killing the loud music of the party.

He saw the shadow getting near him and turned to face it, stumbling over his own feet and almost falling in the process. A soft and pawed hand closed around his wrist and pulled him towards the person, making him crash against a tattooed chest.

"Who are you?" Anferum asked, a small squint in his eyes.

"I'm..., Lance. Paladin of the blue lion, and I'll kick your ass if you don't let me go," he replied, words slippery and coming out with a big effort, before he pulled his hand back, but it didn't give.

Anferum had it in an iron grip, and without saying a word, he pulled the wrist closer to his nose and taking a deep breath, closing his eyes. Was that guy scenting him?

"Your blood smells really appealing, Lance. Is the woman with short hair your sister?" he asked, getting even nearer. 

"Em, no from the blood. We're like, soul siblings," he answered, trying to shut down the tickling sensation that started to spread over him as the guy got his face near his neck, making drunk Lance almost quiver every time he felt a hot puff of air against his skin.

"Are you sure you are not related?" Anferum asked, and his voice made Lance finally retreat, feeling chills running down his spine.

"Well, we're both latin. That's the closest physical bond we have," he answered, a little Lance on the back of his mind asking him why he was still having a conversation with Mister Sniffer.

The alien looked at him with his bright eyes before turning and walking away.

"Is there a way of finishing a conversation with this guy?" Lance asked himself, as he retook his way to his bedroom, a little less light-headed.

# ***

Ariela lived near Brazil, had to Brazilian relatives and loved learning new languages.

Somehow, she had never even thought about learning Portuguese, think that she was regretting as she heard Shiro speak fluently about only he knows what, having reverted to his native language the second the flush on his face grew to his ears and neck.

He kept on licking his lips and pushing strands of hair back in the sexiest way and Ariela was weak. She didn't count on this when she signed up for Galra-fighting. No, the hot guys are only a plus she thought to herself, as she tilted her head and hummed.

" _E as danças, Jesus você deve ter visto aqueles_ ," Shiro was saying, with a glint in his dark eyes. He seemed to have a bright idea, as he grabbed both Ariela's hands and pulled her closer. " _Quando voltar para a Terra Vou levá-lo para dançar Zamba. Eu aposto que você olharia surpreendente..._ " he started, before going on and on, but Ariela just nodded and let the words wash through her mind, feeling like she was being spoken in the language of sex because JESUS CHRIST.

She grabbed his face, making him pout lips and stop talking, before bringing his face really close to hers.

" _Te quiero comer la boca. Agradecé que sos como mi jefe, porque si no mañana no tenías labios,_ " she told him. The fact that Shiro closed his eyes and almost shivered while he hummed didn't help at all.

"Let's stop the sexual tension," Pidge said, before just letting herself fall in between the paladins' faces, scaring them both and unleashing several insults in five different languages.

Once the alcohol like thing started to wear off, Shiro was conscious of how close Ariela was, head leaning on his shoulder and one of her hands over his left, that was resting on her hips just like the other one, and the right one on his nape, scratching slightly, sending shivers down his spine as they swung slowly to the (what seemed like) jazz music.

He was also suddenly very aware of how menosforeans were looking at them with judging eyes and frowns.

"I think we should sit down," he told her.

Ariela opened her eyes and he saw the way her pupils were slightly blown. The blush of the alcohol was still there and her lips were really wet.

"I don't feel like moving," was her answer, as she turned around and settled herself in Shiro's chest, sliding her right arm over his shoulder and to his nape too.

"Don't make me carry you bride style," he said, and she laughed lowly. He was able to feel it against his skin.

"That doesn't sound like a threat at all to me, captain," she said, eyes still closed, and Shiro rolled his eyes, feeling all the eyes on them. He just picked her up, lifting her feet a few centimetres from the floor, and walked towards the couches, where he sat her and then sat beside her.

Now that he was so aware of himself and the woman again, the humour in Allura and Hunk trying to control a drunk Pidge in the background was gone, and the awkwardness of the silence between Ariela and him was heavier.

"So, Ariela... How's your family?" he asked, as he rubbed his sweaty palms against the thighs of his white pants.

"I don't know. I haven't seen them in...," she started, before counting with her fingers and raising them up once she had finished. "Seven years."

"What? Why?" Shiro frowned, the awkwardness slowly fading away.

"Oh. My parent's kicked me out when I told them I was bisexual, so I went to live with my lesbian aunt in the USA," she answered.

"Really?" he asked, making the woman snort, while she shook her head.

"No. It's all a lie for you to pity me," she said, her eyebrows rising when she spotted a servant carrying a tray with drinks towards them. She rose her hand, but Shiro took it and  
looked at the menosforean woman with a smile.

"Could you bring her some food, please?" he asked, murmuring a thank you when the woman nodded.

"Party pooper," Ariela huffed, as she crossed her arms over her chest. "You are not fun when you're sober. I should have taken my chance and made out with you while you were still drunk," she complained, letting herself rest against his side. Shiro rose his eyebrows, feeling the blush creep up his neck.

They fell in silence again, until the woman returned with a bowl of what looked like grilled beef. Ariela ate it with pleasure, as she watched how Hunk carried Pidge away from the room.

"How did you meet Keith?" she asked in a moment, surprising him.

"Oh, well... The house where I was staying while I was in my first year of the Garrison also worked as a foster home. It was the house where Keith stayed the most. After that, he struggled to get into the Garrison, and he managed to," he answered, with a smile.

"So he is an orphan. I had my suppositions, you know? The way he takes care of himself and how touch and love deprived he is..." she said.

"You think he is love and touch deprived?" Shiro asked with a frown.

"Yeah. You should see the way his eyes gleam when someone praises him, and the way physical contact weirds him out but calls to him at the same time. I've caught him staring when Lance and I cuddle in the sofas many times," she explained herself.

"You two are too comfortable with physical tough," he laughed.

"I've cuddled and kissed all of my friends, hot stuff. Cuddling your brother is like the 101 on how to sister," she said as if it was natural. "I just assumed it was something all Latins had ease with."

"You seem to forget that part of my family was Japanese," he said, with a smile.

"You know what I just noticed?" And away the conversation goes.

"What?"

"You are Taka _shi_ _Shi_ rogane," Ariela said, her eyes wide open as if she had just discovered the cure to cancer. Shiro shrugged.

"Yeah, so?" he asked, and the woman turned slowly to him, before smiling widely.

"That means I can call you _Shishi_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -E as danças, Jesus você deve ter visto aqueles: And the dances, Jesus, you should have seen those...
> 
> -Quando voltar para a Terra Vou levá-lo para dançar Zamba. Eu aposto que você olharia surpreendente: When we do back to Earth I'm taking you to dance Zamba. I bet you'll look amazing.
> 
> -Te quiero comer la boca. Agradecé que sos como mi jefe, porque si no mañana no tenías labios: I want to kiss your face off. You should be glad you are somewhat my boss, because you wouldn't have lips tomorrow morning otherwise.


	11. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is a little bit longer than the rest, but I just felt I couldn't finish it where I originally planned to. I hope you like it.

Lance's door suddenly opened and Ariela walked in, in a dress that was really similar to the one she had worn the night before, except this one was short, white and with black decorations instead of silver.

"Dude, I got breakfast served to me on my bed. I feel like a fucking queen," she said to him with the brightest smile on her face. Hunk, that was already dressed and sitting on Lance's bed laughed out loud, while Lance snorted, his face still hidden on the inside of his new tunic while he was putting it on.

"We kind of saved their world, Ari. It's normal they treat us like this," Hunk said, and her smile only turned brighter.

"I'm a warrior queen," she said, opening her arms.

"Of course you are, big sis," Lance said, as he sat alongside Hunk, and suddenly remembered. "Hey, do you know who I talked to last night? Mister Hello Kitty, and he scented me," he told them.

"What the fuck, man? Did you push him away?" Hunk asked, as Ariela still looked into the void with a wrinkled nose, imagining what it would be like to have Anferum the creep sniffing your body.

"No, I was too drunk and there was a mouth too close to my neck for me to be able to react," he answered, making Ariela shot her eyes towards Hunk, muscles tense and ears up. Lance made a gesture with his hand to dismiss the situation.

"I may have accidentally told him yesterday," was Lance's answer, and Hunk shrugged.

"I already knew. I know a little bit of Spanish, and everyone can hear the stuff you scream at Keith," Hunk said, and Ariela's ears were up again. Lance like the kid that had been caught in a lie.

"He yells things at Keith? What?" she asked, with a curious smile.

"Yeah. He once told him something like: 'Corazón de arroz, la que me cuelga es para vos'," Huk answered, and Ariela looked as if she had suddenly been punched in the gut, air escaping her lungs and slowly falling to the floor. "I didn't quite get what it means, but I know it's a pickup line."

"Believe me, handsome, you don't want to know what that means," Ariela told him, as she sat beside Lance and slipped a hand through his shoulders. "So, can I call Keith _cuñado_ or it's off limits?"

"You will do whatever you want anyway," Lance groaned, face buried in between his hands.

"Lance? I'm glad you're here. Have you seen... Oh. Hi, Ariela" Shiro was at the door, wearing a white tunic like the rest of the guys. Ariela smiled widely and opened her arms as if she was going to run towards the man and hug him.

"Shishi! Long time no see!" was what she said, making Shiro roll his eyes to another dimension before saying what he was doing there.

"The king wants to see you two, but we can all go." The environment turned tense with the man's words, and Lance and Ariela clearly started to feel uncomfortable.

"Why would he want to see us?" she asked, already serious and getting up, feeling panic rise through her body. Lance was still sitting on his bed, trying to imagine a motive.

"Something that has to do with Anferum," was Shiro's answer.

# ***

The king's office was wide and at the top of the castle. It was the only room in the castle that had windows on every wall, a motive to books not being kept there, and the office working as some sort of thinking and meeting hall. There were paintings hanging on the walls and plants in between windows, and a huge round table of wood was set in the middle. It had a story carved on it, but Allura was too nervous to actually pay attention to it.

"How do you think they will take it?" the king asked her, worry filling his face.

He was young, Allura thought. He would be in his twenties, and he was pretty much inexperienced, but she somehow knew he would make a great leader. They way he  
worried about people just said it.

"I don't care, as long as she does what she must," Anferum answered. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was giving his back to them, looking out of one of the windows to the different edifications that rose from the selvatic forest too. Anger bubbled up in the pit of her stomach.

"She doesn't owe you anything, warrior. And if you keep talking about her like that, she will certainly not do anything to help you," Allura said, watching as the steady pace of the swishing of Anferum's tail stopped and he tensed his shoulders.

Steps and voices were heard, and five paladins appeared in the room, mumbling between themselves.

Shiro knew something fishy was up the second he saw Allura's worried face and noticed her fidgeting with her dress. No one said anything, and the long and awkward silence made the king act, speaking with a soft voice.

"Lance. You told my bodyguard something yesterday, about you and the black warrior being something similar," the king said, getting near them with a gentle demeanour.

"Yes, we are Latins. That means we are from the same kind of human... Or something like that," Lance explained, while nodding. Shiro also noticed how his sister's fingers tangled with his almost immediately.

"Well, Anferum thinks that this..., Latins may have something to do with Malteians," the king explained, and the bodyguard finally turned around.

"What?" Pidge asked, adjusting her glasses, confused.

"Many of my people escaped when we knew the Galra would come to destroy us. My ancestor was given the coordinates of the place they would be going to, so that if we were ever freed we would be able to reencounter, but I never minded checking on them until yesterday," Anferum said, as he pressed a button on the table.

A hologram screen appeared, and he wrote something on it. A picture of the Earth was shown in blues and whites almost immediately. Ariela already knew where this was going and where it would end, but she didn't want to see it.

"I can smell Malteain blood in you two, although it is slightly stronger in the woman," he proceeded. "She also has de instincts of Malteian fight, and I can you both have the adaptability signature of my species," he explained.

"That's not possible, we are human," Ariela said, voice steady and eyes emotionless.

"Malteia is a really hostile environment, so the natives can basically shapeshift to their needs. It's and adaptable race," the king started explaining, as he got nearer Lance and Ariela. "We believe the ones that escaped made it to your planet and mixed with the humans."

"Okay, we are a fifth alien. I get it. Why is it important?" Lance asked, holding Ariela's hand tightly.

"Well, you could be the last of a species, along with me," Anferum answered. "There's a way to prove it, and activate your malteian genes to give you our abilities."

"That is if they have enough malteian blood in them. We could run some tests..." Allura started but Anferum was shaking his head rapidly, eyes closed and tail swishing with impatience.

"The smell of their blood is almost drowning. I'm certain they have what it takes," he told everyone with a strong tone, making Hunk frown.

There was a silence, and everyone turned to the two Latins. Lance had his eyes wide open, lips slightly parted, and his pupils were tiny. Hi looked from side to side, almost in panic as he analized what he had just been said. Ariela, meanwhile, wasn't moving a muscle. She had her jaw clenched and her eyes fixated in a particular stone of the floor. Anferum moved towards them, but Lance reacted.

"No way. I have a family and I wouldn't like to look like a damn furry when I see them again, thank you," he said, breaking the silence and retreating when the malteian tried to get near him to convince him, but Ariela stood in place.

"If we can shapeshift we can turn to humans again when we go to Earth," she told him. And although it was a perfectly reasonable thing to say, her brother didn't like it at all.

" _¿Me estás jodiendo, Ari?_ " Lance asked her, truly scared.

"Think of it, Lance. We would be able to shapeshift! We can be as strong and as agile as we want. Do you have any idea of how that would improve our chances in battle?" she asked him, serious face and scared eyes.

Hunk frowned again when he heard Anferum purr in content.

"I don't care. I don't want to be some kind of half alien weirdo. If you want to then go ahead, I'm not fucking stopping you," Lance said, letting go of her hand and running downstairs, startling everyone.

Ariela gulped and her eyes started roaming over the room the moment Lance's head disappeared. Shiro frowned when he noticed actual insecurity in her eyes and the way she was looking for some support in one of them. He reached out to put a hand on her shoulder, but her eye's met Allura's and the princess was already speaking.

"I think the best we can do is give Ariela a little time to think about everything," she said, using her royal tone.

"I don't think it would be wise to wait," Anferum growled.

"Well, bo-hoo. She needs to think, and your impatience is not rushing her," Hunk told the malteian, standing beside the woman and trying to use his six feet two to intimidate the five feet eleven of the alien. Ariela actually grabbed the bottom of Hunk's shirt and hung from it, hiding herself a little bit behind him.

"Our servants can take you to meet the town, so you can clear your head and meet the kingdom you saved. Besides, there's an amazing hot spring that you should visit," the king said, putting a friendly hand on Ariela's shoulder, and the woman whispered a thank you, as she turned to the stairs.

Just as they had arrived they were gone.

"I hope you are a hundred percent sure of this, Anferum," Allura told the malteian, and he looked at her dead in the eye.

"Completely sure she will be able to make it."

# ***

It was already five in the afternoon, and she was sliding a robe off her body to just appear naked in front of Allura and Pidge, as she walked into the hot water and let it swallow her until only her face was on the surface. She wouldn't mind drowning there and dying.

They had gone to the menosforean market and discovered that they had only one thing in common. They drank mate (or chimarrão, as Shiro called it), and the moment the two Latins had spotted a package where they sold you a flask for the water, the bombilla, the mate and the yerba, they had gone crazy and the malteian had gifted a package each. Shiro and Ariela had proceeded to prepare and pass the mate around in the group, as it was done in their countries.

They had all loved the strong flavour, specially Allura.

Now, they were at the hot springs, relaxing. Except for Ariela. Now that silence left space on her mind, it was filled with the inner debate of what she should do with this whole malteian thing.

It had scared her to no end, being something she didn't know how exactly was, but it didn't seem that bad. She would gain shapeshifting, and that was a huge pro. If her appearance changed she could always shapeshift into a normal human. The only thing that ringed a bell in her mind was how Anferum had said that they were the lasts of a species.

And, only to add to her concerns, Lance had been acting surly with her the whole time, while they walked around stands of menosforean jewelry he had actually made her trip, and although he usually did it to pick up a fake fight, it almost seemed as if he wanted her to actually get hurt. She had just looked at him with pained eyes and walked away.

"Do you have any idea on what to do?" Pidge asked her from a corner, hugging her legs close to her chest. She felt really vulnerable. Allura, on the other side, was comfortably sitting with her wet hair floating in the pool.

"I think I might say yes. There is no real con," Ariela confesed, calling Allura's attention. "Would I have to stay in Malteia if I did whatever I had to do to activate my genes?" she asked, and Allura shook her head.

"Besides there's no one to actually hold you back. Anferum is just one silly guy, and you could take him down. He's awfully out of shape," Allura said, shrugging, trying to make it not sound important. "It's a pity Lance refused so strongly to it. It would have been an improvement for him," she added, sighing. "I would be much more tranquil if I knew he wasn't just some tiny human that can be crashed."

"Thanks," Pidge muttered.

"Sorry, Pidge, but you know what I mean," the princess replied.

"What would I have to do to activate my genes?" Ariela asked, calling Allura's attention again.

"Anferum said something about a ritual of initiation. It seems that even the native Malteians didn't quite develop the shapeshifting ability until they were dropped on the outside of the planet. It is really hostile,s o their body would adapt to survive," she explained. "I guess all you'd have to do is go to Malteia and..., be there for a while," was her final answer.

"If I don't die in the process, I guess it's okay," Ariela sighed, before sinking in the hot water again.

# ***

Anferum wanted to go alone with her. Ariela refused and asked Lance to accompany her, but he refused, saying that he wouldn't be a part of it with gloomy eyes and refusing to actually look at his sister, before walking away. Allura had to stay with the king, and Hunk and Pidge insisted on Shiro being the one to go, as they secretly trusted neither Anferum nor themselves to defend Ariela from the malteian warrior if something happened to her.

She had visited Bagheera and put her space suit inside him while explaining to him the whole situation. The panther had listened quietly and told her to just suck it up and do it, she could deal with that bratty little brother of hers later. Shiro called her by the intercom and told her that they would be all riding on the black lion, just as a precaution.

And now they were flying on Malteia's surface, in the black lion, that had received the three of them with open arms, but a strong and leader-ish aura still pressing into them, as if it wanted to be discreet about its power.

"Black doesn't know what to think about him," Shiro told Ariela in an opportunity they both thought Anferum couldn't hear them. He was sat in the pilot chair, looking with a serious face at the screen. He hadn't torn his eyes from it from the second he had sat, although they had been chatting the whole time. She leant in, resting part of her weight on the back of the chair, leaving her head at the same level than Shiro's.

"Really?"

"Yeah. He says he feels something familiar in him, but there's still something weird about him," Shiro explained in the name of his robot, gripping the levers tightly, as they landed quietly in the grey sand dessert. Thunderstorm clouds rolled in the sky and made them all want to hurry.

In seconds they were already outside, strong winds trying to push them to the ground. Ariela's hands were sweating already, as Anferum explained to her she would have to take her helmet off and let the environment crash with her. He seemed to be okay, but he had told her that he had been exposed to the planet when he was young, so he could shapeshift into a menosforean to protect the royal family, like his family had been doing for generations.

"If I notice it is too much I'll take you back to the lion," Shiro told her with a strong voice, that let her know he wouldn't listen to complaints. She was glad, though. She somehow knew the air would be able to easily kill her if she didn't have what it took.

"Are you ready, Ariela?" Anferum asked, and she took a deep breath, before taking her hands to her helmet and taking it off, that air inside it making a weird noise when it mixed with Malteia's air.

The first thing she noticed was that it smelt like sulfur. Then she felt the sand hitting her face and making it itch violently.

The air quickly made its way into her body, making her dizzy and lightheaded. She could stand something like a minute and a half before she let herself drop to the hot sand, as thunder roared in the distance, and Anferum told her supportive phrases she didn't quite catch, as she was too worried about the oxygen not reaching her lungs. She was leaning on her arms trying to count her breaths as she watched the sand swirl in front of the eyes, trying to avoid thinking about the earthy and awful taste she had in her mouth.

The burning sensation started, and then her whole body ached and tingled, making her feel like she was being burned alive inside-out and wanting to truly die. She let out a muffled scream of pain through gritted teeth and felt tears start to prickle at her eyes, that were burning. Shiro had started to get nervous the moment the woman dropped to the ground, face pale and sweat already running down her temples, but when she started screaming like they were skinning her alive he started to panic, already running to put the helmet on her again, but Anferum stopped him.

"Don't! The pain is necessary!" he told the paladin, ripping the helmet from his hands and throwing it away.

Shiro bit his tongue and watched as Ariela kept on screaming from her place in the ground, where she had laid in fetal position. Although the heat of the planet, he was feeling a cold sweat drip down his back. He lost his shit a few minutes later when she started to gasp as if someone was choking her, her whole body rigid and skin paper white.

"Is it supposed to go this way?" he asked. Anferum nodded, but he didn't look certain, but then he saw something black fall from the woman's mouth. The paladin's eyes opened  
widely. "Give me her helmet!" Shiro yelled, as the malteian ran through sand to fetch it and he kneeled beside her.

Ariela's eyes were entirely white, and when he searched for her pulse on her neck he noticed that her heartbeat was going too fast. His breath caught it his throat as he lifted her head.

"Oh, god, she's dying," Shiro said, as he caught a glimpse of Anferum running towards them with the black helmet on his hand.

Shiro picked her up and started going towards him, so they could make the distance shorter, and the malteian put the helmet on her head the second he was able to, but Ariela didn't get better, despite being able to breathe purified air.

"We need to get her to the castle, right now," he said, tail stuck to his body in panic, as they ran towards the black lion.

# ***

Lance was locked in his bedroom, reading the notebook in front of him as if he was studying for a final, trying to push the thoughts about Ariela going to Malteia out of his mind.

A few days after she had arrived at the Castle of Lions, Lance had asked her for a notebook and a pen. She had given him a spiral one, that had only three pages with notes about Sigmund Freud written.

It had all started when he had struggled to remember the name of his youngest brother (Colin) one day while talking to Hunk. The name seemed to escape his mind and panic had raised through all of his body. He was slowly forgetting his life on earth. So, when he saw the chance of remembering everything, he had taken the notebook and written everything he knew. Names, dates, memories, places, everything.

He thought about home whenever he had the chance, trying to avoid the sharp pain in his chest because he missed everything so much. Before Ariela, the only thing he had from Earth beside his clothes was himself and his friends.

His sister wanting to abandon her humanity just for the promise of strength made him sick. Was she forgetting Earth and how important it was to them too? He had tried to play with her, trying to make her trip, but she seemed to have forgotten their little game too, because she had just walked away, making him feel like garbage.

_After Colin comes Chloé, his twin. She's two, and she loves when you sing Disney duet songs and act them out in front of them. Her favourite is "I won't say I'm in love", Ariela singing Meg's part and Lance and his older siblings being the muses_ he told to himself, looking at the notes he had taken about his little sister.

There were screaming and banging, making him shoot his head up and run to the door. Hunk was there, breathing heavily.

"Something's wrong with Ariela," was all he said, before grabbing Lances's wrist and pulling him through corridors. In a few seconds, the teen understood what his friend meant and he started running as fast as he could, breath hitching and panic rising through his throat.

_Oh, please, let her be okay. If something bad happens to her I'll kill myself_ he thought, as he caught eye of Shiro running like a mad man, carrying Ariela bride style and a group of menosforeans following him with several things in their hands, shouting instructions.

"ARIELA!" he screamed, and Shiro turned but didn't stop running. The woman didn't react.

The menosforeans entered a room with a high white bed and told Shiro to lay her there. They immediately started taking off her space suit, and Lance's eyes opened widely the moment he caught sight of her veins being a sick-dark-grey that made her look like a zombie.

She started to convulse, scaring everyone and making who seemed to be doctors even more agitated. They told Shiro to hold her legs down, and suddenly Lance was pinning her right hand, being able to see the thin layer of sweat that covered her body and how a black thing was coming out of her mouth and nose.

"What is happening to her?" he asked, voice panicked and at the verge of tears, but no one answered.

"Move!" a menosforean screamed at Hunk, before sinking a needle with a clear and transparent liquid on her jugular.

Ariela slowly stopped shaking, her eyelids finally covering her white eyes, and started breathing, really raged and choked, but breathing.

"I'm afraid we need you out of the room, paladins," a menosforean dressed in white stated, pulling Lance apart from his sister, making him react rather violently, pushing her away and returning to her side.

"I want to be here!" he screamed, but then he was being pulled away by Shiro. "ARIELA! NO! _¡DÉJENME VERLA!_ " he shouted, as the man took him out of the bedroom and pinned him against the wall, telling him to calm down over and over again.

Lance just sobbed.

"I want to know what's wrong."

# ***

"You told us you were certain she had enough blood to survive."

The paladins and princess Allura entered the king's office, just to catch him yelling at the malteian, who seemed to be in the middle of a breakdown.

Hunk had to hold Lance down. HPidge was keeping his bayard, but the teen had no problem on launching to the guy that had made his sister be like that. The man that had put her in danger.

"I thought it was enough," Aferum answered in a whisper to the king, eyes stuck to his head and tail hugging his waist.

"How do I know you're not lying again?" the king muttered through gritted teeth. "You knew it wasn't enough, but you were so desperate you tried anyways. You didn't care for her life as long as you had someone who you could mate with," he continued, and he knew he was right the moment he saw how Anferum's eyes sunk low. "I can't believe you."

"You were going to leave. The best I could do was save my species if I wasn't going to be with someone I loved," the malteian answered, making the king's shoulders tense. "I'm sorry, Feer."

"I told you we would figure it out," he said to Anferum, before turning to the paladins, that were watching everything, not quite knowing how to react.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!" Lance shouted, as squirmed out of Hunk's grip and ran for it, but Allura caught him from the hood and held him back.

"You told us our paladin was perfectly safe," Allura recriminated, pointing at the malteian with an accusatory finger and looking like she was about to start a blood bath.

"I'm sorry. I trusted in my bodyguard too much, but I'm sure she will make it alive. If she's made it this far, there is not something she can't overcome," the king said, raising his hands as if that would make them calm down.

"What happened to her?" Lance asked, voice hoarse from screaming and crying.

"The air poisoned multiple parts of her body. It enhanced her genes and started the change, but she wouldn't have survived. We will be able to clean her body from all the toxins and she will be perfectly fine," the king rushed to answer.

"She didn't look perfectly fine," Shiro answered harshly, making Anferum squirm.

"We know. It's just the venom isn't nice to the body, but well make it go away. Menosforeans have experience with this kind of stuff, she'll be okay in a couple of days."

"She better is, or we'll have a problem," Hunk stated, crossing his arms over his chest.

# ***

The only thing Ariela was aware of was that she couldn't move. Something held her down in the few lucid minutes she had from time to time, before falling back into the darkness. She wanted to speak, call for her, but her throat was ridiculously dry and nothing but a mere croak sound would come out. At least the burn and ache were over.

She didn't have a dream, not once, but there was a moment when she stopped thrashing around and actually started to rest while unconscious, feeling like her head was a little bit clearer every time she woke up.

And, one day, she finally felt like she was in control of her own body.

She woke up because of a smell. It was a mix of soap, spices and summer that made her body relax and her mind feel at ease. She had never smelled that thing before in her life, but her mind seemed to recognise it easily because she spoke even before opening her eyes.

"Lance," she called, slowly opening her eyelids, as her ears caught the sound of clothes ruffling and breathing and..., a heartbeat picking up?

"She's awake," Lance announced, and she finally was able to focus her eyesight, catching a glimpse of bloodshot and tired blue eyes before Lance closed them and hugged her, making her groan at the way her body still hurt. The smell became even stronger, at it mixed with several more, making her head swim in unknown and kind of animalistic feelings she hadn't known before.

"How are you feeling?" Pidge asked, voice high, as someone pushed a glass of water against her lips.

She drank, closing her eyes and enjoying the feeling of cool water running down her throat with a hum.

"Weird," she answered, once the glass was pulled away from her.

"You'll feel like that until you get used to your new self," Shiro told her, and Ariela frowned.

"What?" Everyone exchanged awkward glances.

"While you were out your body changed. You aren't like Anferum, but you are kind of halfway there," Hunk explained.

"So I actually had malteian blood," she breathed, before dropping her head, letting Lance's arms hold it. "Oh, god. I must look awful."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Corazón de arroz, la que me cuelga es para vos: Heart of rice, the thing that hangs between my legs is for you (T.N: This is a pickup line really common in Argentina, and many people use it as a joke all the time because of how gross it is)
> 
> -Cuñado: Brother in law.
> 
> -¡DÉJENME VERLA!: LET ME SEE HER!


	12. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so in this chapter we finally reveal what was wrong with Keith, and is basically a chapter that will allow me to explain the whole deal later and to present better the relationships that are being born :3

Ariela was fucking huge.

The three days she had been completely unconscious and suffering alone in one of the infirmary's beds, surrounded by menosforeans doctors and tied down so they could avoid her hurting herself while no one was looking, she had changed. Not as much as she would have if she had had more Malteian blood, but it was enough to make Lance feel angry.

For starters, she had suddenly grown at least four inches, and she now reached to his ear, when in the past she barely made it to his neck. Her body was leaner too, the little pudginess she had on her stomach going away, but stretch marks were every-fucking-where, making her groan constantly while she discovered the white lightning like marks over her body. It had been like a three-day-puberty, her whole body growing non-stop, including her hair, that went from the almost undercut to shoulder length.

Her ears were pointy now too, not as much as an Altean, but they had an elf air and they moved a lot more now. Her pupils were slitted, and her iris had gone from slight amber to straight up gold, almost shining in the dark. Her nose wasn't straight anymore, the tip quirked a little bit upwards, and her eyelashes were really bushy. Her skin was tanner too, and she seemed to move with a certain grace that hadn't been there before. Her nails were longer and stronger too.

"I don't know how to express how sorry I am," Anferum said again, without looking at Ariela in the eye.

They hadn't had the banquet, and Allura made clear the would be coming back to finally celebrate sometime in the future, as they said goodbye to everyone. Anferum had explained to Ariela that she wouldn't be able to actually shapeshift, but her _arima_ was totally adaptable now. 

"Do you have any idea of what arima is?" Lance asked, as each of them went into their robot, speaking over a private conversation.

"No idea. I'll ask Coran when I meet him. Did you visit Keith while he was sick?" she replied, as she started to turn on the propellers. The panther was purring, sending warm feelings to her mind, and she surprised herself purring back, understanding the meaning of each feeling in a non-human way.

"I tried. We all tried. But he wouldn't open the door for us. Shiro was worried sick about you both," Lance answered, and the in group conversation started the second Ariela said:

"Every day I'm more convinced that he is like our Space Dad," causing Shiro to shut his mouth and completely forget about what he was going to say. Pidge busted in laughter and Ariela blushed, feeling the embarrassment of being caught talking about their leader creeping up her neck, as she just sent the panther flying towards the sky without waiting for orders.

# ***

Keith was suffering, both physically and mentally. He felt every fibre of his being on fire, and he had never felt so much like killing himself like in those last days. It was so easy, walking unseen to the disposal chambers, pressing a button and waiting. He would suffocate into the airless void that space was, and no one would have to deal with a dead body.

"Keith?" a voice asked for the eleventh time that day.

Shiro had passed his bedroom at least seven times since they had returned from Menosfor, trying to get Keith to unlock his door and take the tray of food he had on his hands, but it was no avail. Then Lance had gone by three or five times, telling him to get better soon, he was missing their daily argues.

"What?" he groaned, shifting on his bed, as he grasped his stomach. It felt like something was cutting his way to the surface.

"It's Ariela. I just wanted to check on you. Do you need anything?" she asked, and she sounded truly worried. A sharp pain went through Keith's legs, making him muffle a scream on the pillow, but the woman took the silence in as something different. "You know you can rely on us, don't you, sweetheart?" she asked him, the cute nickname making Keith feel both awfully guilty and terribly tempted to run to the door and open.

"I'm okay," he said instead.

"Roger. If you need anything, my room is right in front of yours," the woman told him, surprising him with the lack of insistence that Shiro had had, before shuffling away. Keith could actually smell how she left and that wanted to make him just pass away.

# ***

Two days passed, and Keith didn't leave his room.

Shiro and Lance were both on edge, and although everyone was used to the second taking things out in practice, it was a shock to all the team when Shiro just kicked Lance on the side and sent him flying towards one of the grey mats that covered the wall.

They were fighting on one of the corners, while Pidge and Ariela practised on the other, Hunk smashing the punching bag like it was a Garla face. Lance had hit Shiro in the jaw, making the man (that was distracted thinking about Keith's state and was caught out of guard by the violent attack, being carried away to the arena for a few seconds) snap. He had jumped and round-house kicked Lance on the waist, making the teen yelp and smash his body against one of the mats and fall to the ground.

He was still realising what he had done when a weight smashed against his nape, throwing him to the ground and pressing him there. Suddenly, there was a knife nailed on one of the mats, millimetres away from his ear, and Ariela was hissing and growling at the other. He had turned his eyes to look at her and the sight of white bared fangs and golden slitted eyes had scared the crap out of him, but she had quickly realised he was frightened, because she had suddenly relaxed and crawled at an amazing speed towards her brother, that had already sat on the floor and was massaging his neck.

"Are you okay, Lance?", she asked him, pulling long bangs away from her face as she kneeled beside him, and started to lift his shirt. The area where Shiro had kicked was completely red.

"Yeah," he answered. Shiro got up and quickly walked towards them, but the woman turned and adopted a defence position, that made her look like an actual feline protecting one of its own, hissing at the man and tensing her lips to show her fangs again, hands wide open to show her nails (or claws).

"I'm sorry, I just... I don't know what happened to me," Shiro said, raising his hands as to calm the woman, and it seemed to work because the hissing stopped and she relaxed a little bit.

"I think you should take a break to clear your head, man," Hunk told him, as he clamped one of his big hands on his right shoulder.

"You should cool down too, Lance. Shiro is already starting to bruise," Pidge added, signalling Shiro's reddening jaw, as Ariela helped the teen up, looking at his as if he was an invalid suddenly recovered.

"I'm sorry too, Shiro. My mind was..., not here," Lance told, looking down to hide a blush, and Ariela laughed.

"Yeah. _Estaba en la habitación de tu amor._ " The only thing Shiro was able to get was something about a bedroom and love, and he frowned at the way Lance's blush deepened and he smacked the woman in the arm.

"What are all of you doing? You should be training?" Coran's voice cut through their silence, and Shiro turned to him, targeting the Altean.

"What is happening with Keith?" he asked, and Pidge raised an eyebrow when she noticed how he was using his leader voice on the other man, crossing his arms over his chest and raising his chin.

"He is suffering from the common flu. He should be okay in a few day," Coran said, and Ariela squinted her eyes. The body language was clearly defying Shiro, it wasn't relaxed or open at all. "Now go back to training."

He was lying, and they all had noticed that.

"Pidge, can I talk with you after training?" Shiro asked, and she nodded, before walking back with Ariela to their mat section.

"Are you sure, Shiro? I want to know what is wrong with Keith too, but this is a little too much," she said, as she cut through wiring, trying to unlock the red paladin's bedroom's door so that their worried leader could go in.

"It has been a whole week, Pidge, and he hasn't left his room not once. Keith has taken exams with a forty degree fever and once tried to run with a sprained ankle. He wouldn't be out of combat because of the damned flu," the man answered, furiously tapping his left foot against the floor, looking at the door as if that would make it open up.

"You knew him well, huh?" Pidge said, voice low as her focus was drifting away from the conversation and pouring completely on the wiring. She almost had it.

"He's my best friend," Shiro confessed, and the door opened, with Pidge shouting 'AHA'.

The place smelled to confinement and everything had turned into a mess. Things that looked like books and pillows had been shredded and were lying destroyed on the floor, making a path to Keith's bed, where he slept calmly, covering all his body with a sheet.

"Keith?" Shiro called, as he got near and sat on the bed.

The mattress dipping at the weight of the man woke him up, and before his brain could do it too and tell him to stop, he had turned around and uncovered his face, to see what the fuck Shiro wanted. He had been sleeping thrice as much this last week, so he was a little confused. He was also still feverish and his whole body ached, but it was nothing compared to the first days.

"What do you want, Shiro?" he asked, voice hoarse, as he rubbed his face.

The man didn't answer. He was too occupied processing the shock. Keith looked at Shiro's shocked face with confusion, until he realised what was going on, feeling his new ears flattening against his skull and his hair rise as the smell of fear and anger filled his nose.

Shiro grabbed him and threw him out of the bed, against the wall, before lighting his arms and attacking again. Keith moved instinctively, evading only as he didn't want to hate Shiro and make him hate him more, trying not to pay attention to Pidge screaming bloody murder and trying to stop the man.

"WHO ARE YOU? WHAT DID YOU DO TO KEITH?" Shiro screamed at him, pupils almost inexistent as the panic made them shrink. His sight would unfocus sometimes, and his attacks were sloppy, easy to guess and evade.

"SHIRO, STOP!" Pidge screamed, grabbing Shiro's human hand and pulling him behind, but he shook her away. The girl got out of the bedroom, screaming for help, as Keith followed, wanting to escape.

Pidge appeared panting and crying on the dining room door, interrupting their silence.

Ariela and Lance had already showered and changed, both ready to go to sleep in their pyjamas, but Hunk still had his training clothes on.

"Shiro is attacking Keith," she had said, tear-filled eyes wide open, and the first to get up was Lance, but soon enough they were all following her towards the control deck, where screaming and struggling could be heard.

When they arrived, Shiro was choking Keith, the younger pinned against a wall and desperately clawing at the man's hands so he would set him free. Hunk reacted first, running with a battle cry towards Shiro and tackling the shit out of him, pinning him to the ground with his Olympic force, making the man start to scream as Keith dropped to the ground, panting and shaking.

"LET ME GO! DON'T TOUCH ME!" Shiro screamed as everyone got near Keith. Ariela was surprised to see he had cat-like ears, his skin was now purple and he also had claws.

"Lance, take Keith away from here and take care of him," she commanded, as her brother picked Keith up and fled from the room, panicked eyes letting her know he was just as scared and confused by the situation.

"A little help here would be nice!" Hunk exclaimed when one of Shiro's hands broke free from his grip and tried to punch him.

The woman run and slid next to the man, grabbing his hand, and tangling their fingers together, before she started to speak, trying to ignore Shiro's tears streaming down fastly from his eyes, and the fast rant he had gone into, telling them not to hurt him, that he was only doing his job.

His head was swimming in a mix of Galra-time memories and the present, flashes of sensations slowly calming him down. His hand felt warm and a sweet voice was speaking and he could sometimes see Ariela's lips (the only thing from her face that hadn't changed since Malteia) moving and smiling awkwardly. But he could also feel that his legs were numb, he was unable to move or breathe properly.

Ariela ordered Hunk to move the second Shiro started to repeat _Ar, eu preciso de ar_ over and over again, moving his head from side to side as if that was going to help him. The second Hunk's weight was off of him, Shiro took a deep breath that made his lungs hurt, and started to relax.

He was still crying and mumbling things that Ariela wasn't able to understand, and it took half an hour to completely make his panic attack go away because he never calmed down.

The moment his eyes finally focused and stayed focused on the woman's face, he had looked at her in pain and made a distress noise, that made Ariela's animal instincts (now taking an important part of her brain, since she had changed) kick in and tell her to protect him. She could smell the stress around him, a slight change in Shiro's normal scent (salt, metal and jasmines)

"Shiro, everything's okay," Hunk told him, not knowing if he should hold his head down, now that he had started to slightly bang it against the floor while repeating that Keith was gone and sobbing like he was a little child.

"I'm a mess," he laughed, hysteria kicking in, and he tried to hid his face in Ariela's arms.

"Do you want to go to your bedroom?" she asked, voice soft, barely a whisper, and he nodded slightly.

# ***

"My throat hurts," Keith said, first words being spoken with really hoarse voice, as Lance looked at his bedroom's door. Someone had messed with the wiring, and it wouldn't lock.

"Listen, I'm taking you to my bedroom so that we can lock you in, just in case Shiro goes _coo coo_ again," Lance told the red paladin, that was resting his whole weight on him and panting slightly, making him bite his lips.

His gut was twisted and he felt as if his emotions had suddenly all jumped off of his body, except for the need to take care of Keith and make him feel safe. Somehow, the ears and the purple skin weren't weirding him out, as he carried Keith to his own bedroom and laid him on the bed, while he commanded the door to close and lock.

"What happened, Keith?" he asked the boy, as he sat next to him on the bed.

Keith continued to pant for a while, making Lance conscious of the flush in his cheeks and check for a fever, that was definitely there. He immediately started to cover Keith with his blankets, while he thought about leaving him alone to look for a wet cloth to put on the guy's forehead.

"Somehow I..., have Galra genes. I'm like a hybrid," he said, breaking the silence and surprising Lance.

"Okay. Listen, I'm going to look for something to down your temperature. When I leave, lock the door and unlock it when I come back," he told him, while he started to stand up, but Keith's hot hand closed around his arm and he pulled him down, almost making Lance fall over his stomach.

"Don't leave me, Lance. Please. I don't feel okay," he said, and suddenly tears were starting to prickle at his eyes, as he sobbed slightly, surprising Lance.

He was shocked, not quite knowing what to do at the beginning, but after a few seconds, he decided on lying down with Keith, covering them both with the sheets and a blanket.

"You're so cold," Keith mumbled, as he turned to face him and closed his eyes, fingertips slightly touching Lance's. "You won't leave me if I fall asleep, right?" he asked, making Lance finally decide to slide his arm around Keith's waist and push him flush to his chest, settling his head over Keith's, trying to control his ragged breathing.

"I won't. Now rest, mullet boy," he told him, and Lance couldn't fight back the smile that spread over his face when Keith nuzzled his neck and accommodated himself to fit Lance better and be even closer to him.

# ***

Ariela thought Shiro would cry until he fell asleep, which would have been great because that would have given them the time to actually know what was going on and figure something out before he woke up. 

At the beginning they had just sat on the bed, Shiro's ear pressed against her chest (Ariela had chuckled when she noticed he was counting her heartbeats in whispers, as he cried in silence), but when they both started to feel too exhausted to actually sit, they just dropped on the bed, and she let Shiro hug her close and keep listening to her heartbeat, as she drew invisible figures on his back and nape.

The strength of his grip had slowly started to give in, and his face had started to weight more against her chest. So, when tears finally stopped falling on her and Shiro's breathing became even and deep, she thought he had fallen asleep, but when she started to move away he weakly held her against him.

"I'm scared," Shiro told her, voice weak. "Something happened to Keith, and I almost killed him, and I feel so tired," he explained himself, slowly lifting his head to look at the woman in the eyes. He reminded him of thirteen-year-old Lance, after a breakdown, or his little sister Donelle during a tornado.

Or herself in the mirror. Scared eyes that were looking for someone that would understand them and take care of them until they actually felt like dealing with life again.

"It will be okay, Shiro," she told him, smiling weakly at the sad eyes. "Do you want me to stay with you tonight?" she asked him, and he bit his cheek and looked down before whispering a small yes.

"But, stay _stay_ ," he said, looking like a toddler even more.

"I'll be here with you all the time, but we should at least get under the covers."

Shiro gulped and started to struggle to get up. He surely was feeling weak as hell, after a hard day of training and such a breakdown, she wouldn't be able to even speak if she were in his situation. But they eventually made it, and Shiro didn't let go of her hand for a second, while she pulled the sheets and blankets, that had wrinkled under their weight, and when they got into bed again.

She pulled the blankets and covered them both. They were lying face to face, and Shiro started to move near her, before stopping himself.

"I hurt three of my friends today. First Lance, then Pidge and then Keith," he told her, looking scared again, and she cupped his face with her right hand, smiling tiredly.

"You were agitated and scared," she told him, before concluding with: "I know you won't hurt me."

Shiro looked at her for a few seconds, not quite knowing if she was being honest, but then he nodded and pulled her closer again, making her bury her face in his chest and  
hugging her tightly for a few seconds, before loosening his grip.

She felt as if she was wrapped in a hot and amazing-smelling blanket.

"I won't hurt you," he said, and she knew he was saying that to himself. "I'll protect you. All of you."

# ***

When Lance woke up, Keith didn't have a fever anymore. They had separated, and he found out that his teammate had stolen every fucking cover there was in his bed and had rolled himself up in a human burrito. He was trembling, teeth making a constant crackling noise that made him nervous. When Lance held out a hand to touch Keith, he noticed he was really cold.

"Oh my dog," he said out loud, as he thought if he could change the room's temperature or if he had to ask Allura to change the whole ship's temperature.

"Lance..., I'm cold," Keith told him, eyes still closed, letting him know he was awake.

"I'll tell Allura to up the temperature," he told him, but Keith shook his head as if it was the worse idea ever.

"Don't leave me," he repeated, finally opening his eyes. They were still purple, but the pupils were so dilated that it was barely a colourful ring around black.

"You'll freeze to death, Keith," Lance told him. He was dying to cuddle the ish out of that guy, hugging him close and make him feel better, but he knew that now Keith wasn't feeling that bad, maybe because Shiro hadn't _just_ tried to kill him, he would be mad.

"Just come here, you jerk," Keith told him through gritted teeth, as he opened his blanket-burrito, and Lance opened his eyes widely.

"Only if you don't kill me afterwards," he said, already getting near Keith and hugging him, as he covered both of them with the blankets and started to search for a position where they were both comfortable.

They ended up face to chest, legs tangled and hugging each other.

Keith's head was swimming in the sensations his new heightened sense provided him. he could feel Lance's heartbeat as if it was his own, his heat was the most pleasurable thing he had met, sinking slowly into his bones, warming him up. His smell enveloped him and made him hum slightly, feeling like he was home. He wanted to feel Lance even more that he was already doing, and his drugged like head didn't think it was a bad idea at all.

Lance's heartbeat fastened and his eyes opened widely when Keith's hands slipped through his shirt and slid across his naked back, nails slightly scrapping. The red paladin hummed again, contentedly, and he nuzzled Lance's chest, while the other boy just prayed not to get a boner against Keith's thigh.

"You're warm, and you smell really good," Keith confessed, voice muffled against Lance's chest, and he felt like he was about to cry.

"Err, thank you," he said, not knowing how to react.

A few minutes passed, Keith squirming against him from time to time and the trembling slowly fading away until it disappeared, and Lance was going to ask what the fuck was all this cuddling and making him horny, but Keith had already fallen asleep.

# ***

Shiro woke up to his nose buried in hair and feeling warm and rested.

His brain restarted slowly as if it was an old computer, and it took him a while to put all the pieces together and realise that he was cuddling Ariela. Her back was pushed against his chest, and he was the one holding her close with his left arm. His right arm had slipped through space there was between her neck and the mattress, and their fingers were tangled together, Ariela holding their hands against her left collarbone.

She was still asleep; he could tell by the slow breathing and heartbeat, thing he didn't share. His heartbeat had started to run and his breathing had caught in his throat the moment he realised what the situation was.

_What the fuck is going on? Did we sleep together?_ he was thinking, looking from side to side, trying to remember what had happened the night before.

The memory of Keith's face and struggling while he choked him, having him pinned against the wall, came to his life as if it was the flash of a camera, making him gasp and jolt up, waking Ariela, that sat confused, looking from side to side, murmuring things in Spanish, before realising where she was.

"Shiro?" she asked when she noticed how he was clutching the blankets, knuckles white. "Hey, what's wrong?" she asked, frowning, as she put her hands on his shoulders.

"I attacked Keith. He looked like a Galra," he breathed out, barely noticing how the woman started to massage his shoulders, trying to make him relax.

"Yes, that happened last night, but Keith is okay. Lance checked on him, he was perfectly fine," she lied smoothly, as she rested her forehead in between Shiro's shoulder blades, and kept on massaging.

"What happened to him? Oh, god, I feel horrible," he groaned, burying his face between his hands again, and Ariela slid her arms around his waist to hug him tightly.

"Don't beat yourself for it Shiro. His looks triggered you, and the important thing is that no one was hurt," she said. Well, Keith was kind of hurt, but we are not going to tell him that she thought, raising an eyebrow.

"Do you think I can see him?" Shiro asked, turning to look at her, making her sit up straight and look at him in the eyes. She chewed on her bottom lip, while she thought.

"I think the best thing is for you to not see him until this whole deal is settled down. Having your mind used to the idea might make the transition to whatever is happening easier," she explained to him, jaw tensing when Shiro's eyes dropped. "But you can still talk to him."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -En la habitación de tu amor: In your love's bedroom.
> 
> -Ar, eu preciso de ar: Air, I need air. (T.N: When Shiro speaks Portuguese or when the siblings speak Spanish, they usually can catch the main idea of what the other is saying, as their languages share many similar words. _Ar_ and _Aire_ for example, and _preciso_ means _need_ in both Portuguese and Spanish)


	13. [NOT UPDATED]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More bonding. Shiro deals with Garla!Keith and Ariela has to deal with panicked!Shiro again.

Keith wanted to kill himself when he finally woke up, body temperature normal and the only thing left from his suffering was a slight headache that he barely noticed, too panicked thinking about how Lance was pressing him flush against his body, nose buried in between his ears and arms around his waist. He hadn't moved, not even one inch, as he didn't want to wake Lance up. His palms had started to sweat against the warm skin of his teammate's back.

There was a knock at the door and Lance jolted awake, raising his head in confusion but not letting go of Keith, who had his ears perked up, expectant about both Lance's actions and who was at the door. He could smell Shiro's scent and recognise it clearly, alongside with one that seemed a little bit familiar too, but he couldn't quite place.

"Lance, is Keith there with you?" Ariela asked, and Keith oh-ed at the realisation. The smell (stormy air, water with sugar and campfire) was hers, and he wanted to slap himself for not thinking of it. It was like the time he had smelt oil, vanilla and earth and he hadn't realised it was Hunk.

"Uhm, yeah. Why?" Lance asked, still not letting go of the red paladin. It was Shiro who answered.

"I was wondering if I could talk to him. I promise I won't attack again, but if he doesn't want to it's..., okay," he explained himself, stuttering a little bit at the end, making Keith's heart drop.

Against his wishes, he parted from Lance, standing up with slightly wobbly legs. He could see the blue paladin looking at him with worried blue eyes, but he spoke anyway.

"Open door," he commanded, and the panels slid open to reveal Shiro tapping his fingers anxiously against Ariela's shoulder, who gave Keith a weak smile, before putting her hand on Shiro's back and gently pushing him into the room.

The man was blindfolded. It had been Ariela's idea, so he would be able to talk to Keith without seeing him and his appearance triggering him, making him go into a feral state and attack him. Of course not being able to see anything made him awfully nervous, but there was something on the way Ariela guided him slowly and never let go of him that made him feel protected.

"Keith?" he asked, trying to look around and find the teen. Well, trying to guess where he was.

"I'm right here," he replied to the call, voice slightly raspy from the choking the night before, and Shiro's gut twisted the second he heard that, knowing he was the responsible for that. He wanted to face Keith, but instead he let his face fall.

"I'm really sorry for what I did to you. There was no reason for me to attack you and you were feeling sick...," Shiro started, a strange sensation in his chest make it hard for him to speak, but Keith cut him short.

"I understand, Shiro. My..., looks made you remember bad things. I would have probably reacted just like you if I were in your shoes. Don't beat yourself over it," he told him, and Ariela's hurt shrank when she saw how Keith reached out slightly for Shiro, but he stopped himself, giving a step back. "Does..., not looking at me help you?"

He remembered how Shiro hadn't thought of him as his friend that just looked different, but as the enemy disguised and trying to trick him. It had hurt a lot, being looked at with such disgust and fear by one of the people you loved the most, but he didn't want to say anything about it. Shiro probably already hated himself enough.

"I swear it was only the shock. I'm not..., repulsed by you Keith, and I'll work on it to be able to be with you just as I used to. Okay? I won't stop looking at you, it's just until I can wrap my mind around it," the man answered, and there was a little hope in Keith's eyes. Shiro gave a step forward, hesitantly, after reaching out for Ariela's hand and pulling her  
with him.

The woman looked at his brother and mouthed the question 'Hug?' in Spanish. Lance gave her a thumbs up, and she stood on her tiptoes to whisper in Shiro's ear.

"You should hug him. Do you feel comfortable with that?" she asked, and separated from him, watching how Shiro thought for two seconds before nodding.

She smiled and guided him towards Keith, winking him an eye when the red paladin looked at her in confusion. Shiro opened blindly his arms and Keith looked at Lance, who indicated him with a gesture of his head to go for it.

Slowly, really slowly, Keith got near Shiro and slid his arms around him, flinching slightly at the way the man's muscles tensed for a moment, before relaxing and hugging him back. Keith's face ended up buried in Shiro's shoulder and he tightened his arms around the man when he started to rub his back.

Ariela and Lance shared a knowing look, while smiling, as the other two hugged it out. 

The door was still opened, so Allura walked in without announcing herself and opened her mouth to ask what was happening when the Latin brothers turned to her and put a finger on their lips, indicating her to stay quiet. She nodded slightly, and waited patiently by the door until Shiro and Keith finally parted from their hug. Keith looked a little bit better, smiling a slightly, and his ears rose when he saw Allura standing at the door.

"I didn't want to interrupt," Allura said, and Shiro turned fastly, arm lighting up but he didn't attack. Ariela put a hand on his shoulder as if it was the most natural thing between them, and Shiro relaxed, both because of the reassuring touch and because he had registered Allura's voice.

"We came up with this idea until I get used to the whole deal," Shiro explained, blindly signaling the make-shift blindfold (it was a black cloth Ariela used as a belt when she wore a dress that was too loose on the waist), as he faced the way Allura's voice had come from.

"It's a great idea. I was looking for you to have a meeting, everyone, so we can come clean about everything that has been happening. Keith still doesn't know anything about Menosfor," Allura explained herself.

"Yeah, why is Ariela suddenly taller than me? I was happy being the third smallest member instead of the second," Keith complained, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Turns out you are not the only half-alien weirdo in this Castle, mister," she chuckled, raising her hand to high-five him. Keith frowned and, with a lot of doubt, he complied.

# ***

Keith hadn't been hugged so much since... Well, he couldn't actually remember the last time he had been hugged five times in less than three minutes (all crashing hugs with a  
lot of emotion that left him breathless, three of them given by Hunk). He and Lance had gone ahead, Shiro telling them to do so so he could go to the dining room without the blindfold.

"You had us really worried, man. Pidge missed you during training," Hunk told, signalling the girl, who smiled at him awkwardly. They usually were training partners, as they were the ones with most similar size. Then Ariela had come and changed stuff, Lance turning into his partner, but now that she had grown four inches out of nowhere, things would probably go back to usual.

"I'm sorry I didn't tell you earlier. I was so scared of how you would react that I thought I would actually be able to hide it from you..., somehow. I didn't think of how it would make it all worse," he said, just for when Shiro, Allura and Ariela walked through the door.

He had the blindfold on again, but he walked alone, fumbling his way to one of the chairs, and Lance laughed at the way Ariela circled him, worriedly making sure he didn't crash against something or someone, or even tripped.

"That's the chair," she told him when Shiro gripped the back of it, and he slowly sat down. The woman relaxed, and let herself drop into the chair next to Lance.

"Okay, lets talk about everything," Coran stated, as everyone sat down. All the eyes flew to Keith, and he resisted the urge to fidget with all his might. It was something strange for him, being the centre of attention usually wouldn't make him so nervous, but there was a little annoying voice in the back of his head telling him that if he didn't use the right words they would kick him out of Voltron.

"Umm... When we invaded the Galra space station I fought against a... weird Galra witch," he started, with everyone looking at him really focused.

"A druid," Shiro nodded, his face resting on his hand, and facing the way Keith was sitting.

"Yeah, one of those, and I got drenched in quintessence modified to be Galra fuel. My hand had little purple dots from before when the druid attacked me, but when the quintessence touched me they went away," Keith continued, and he frowned at Allura's worried face. "What?"

"Nothing. It's just you were lucky you weren't touched by raw quintessence," she said, sighing. The eyes turned to her and when she noticed that no one except for Coran understood what she meant, she started to explain herself. "Quintessence is a really powerful element, and really few races can interact with it without their arima's getting reduced to ash," she said.

"Anferum mentioned something about my arima too. What is that?" Ariela asked.

"Oh, you don't know what it is?" Coran asked. They all shook their heads. "Hmph. How to explain it?" he asked himself, fumbling with his moustache as he thought.

"I think the best way to describe it is... It's as if you mixed someone's soul, energy, body and mind. It's a living being's essence," she explained, and Coran squinted his eyes. "Raw quintessence can erase most being's arima's, excepting for those that have a strong connection to magic, like Alteans."

"Or Galran druids," Shiro finished off, and everyone turned around to look at Keith again.

"Okay. So, we get back to the castle, bada-bing bada-bang, a few days pass and I notice the purple stains are back and they're bigger," he says, making Lance smile at the bada-bing bada-bang thing. "It started to spread all over my skin, slowly, but it was still scary. I also started to feel really easy to anger and more violent."

"So he came to me for answers. I run some tests on his blood, but I couldn't understand what the results meant, or I didn't want to understand," the royal adviser confessed, dropping his gaze. "Keith's human DNA is mixed with Galra DNA. But it hadn's been always so much. As the stains advanced, the Galra DNA became stronger on his blood."

"I think it has something to do with the druid attack. Maybe something in her magic put Galra genes in me," Keith said, looking around.

"I don't know Keith. There are chances that those genes have always been there," Ariela said, frowning.

"Why would you think that?" Pidge asked.

"Remember how Anferum said that he thought he was the last malteian alive because the Galra have gone after the ones that had escaped? All I'm saying is, if the malteian were able to make it to Earth, why wouldn't the Galra?" Ariela explained.

"Who's Anferum?" Keith asked.

They all proceeded to tell him and Coran everything that had happened in Menosfor. How Lance and Ariela had discovered they had alien genes but only she had decided to activate them and it had all gone a little bit wrong because of the idiot of Anferum.

"That is actually a good theory," Hunk mumbled, arms crossed over his chest and eyes closed as he thought about the chances. "But malteiaans were able to mix with the actual humans. Galra can't do that, right?"

"Maybe they can and we just don't know it, or they figured a way out," Allura said, grabbing her chin.

A silence followed, while everyone just thought about the options of Galra having been on Earth before Shiro lead them to it, and Keith noticed how he started to fidget, trying to look around, nervous.

"Everyone's still there, right?" he asked in a moment, reaching out to touch someone, and Ariela smiled and grabbed his hand, having to lean on the table because of the distance. He held her hand strongly and seemed a little bit more at ease.

"So... Can I stay or I have to leave?" Keith asked, not being able to bear with the doubt anymore. They all turned their attention to him again, looking purely confused.

"What do you mean by leaving, Keith?" Allura asked while Ariela turned to Lance. He had tensed and almost jumped in his seat when he had listened to Keith say that.

"I'm half Galra. I'm half enemy. Shiro can't even look at me, even less the planets that have been under their rule. My lion probably won't respond to me anyway, and I'm sure having me on the team makes you a little uncomfortable already," he said, looking depressed. Ariela realised he thought that was the truth, and he was saying it aloud just to make himself come around the fact it was true.

"Keith, this is just temporary. I've already told you," Shiro said, but he sounded a little discouraged.

"We'll work on it," Ariela stated, gripping Shiro's hand stronger. "And you don't make us uncomfortable. At least not me or Lance. And our allies will have to decide whether they have a half Galra protecting them or not protection at all," she finished, and Keith's eyes shined with renewed hope, but it went away quickly.

"What about my lion?" he asked, gulping. "If she doesn't want me I'm useless."

"Keith," Lance said, voice stained with seriousness that surprised everyone. "The fact that your body has changed doesn't mean the rest of you did. You haven't turned into a merciless monster, in fact, you seem more concerned for everyone now than you used to do. No one here is actually rejecting you," he told the red paladin, putting an awkward hand on his shoulder.

"No one except for yourself," Pidge corrected him, looking at them through her thick glasses. Keith's jaw clenched and he turned his face away.

"I don't want this," he said, hands closing into fists and voice drenched in frustration. "I'm the enemy."

"You look like the enemy; a thing that, if you think about it, is really useful," Hunk corrected him.

"Once Shiro is calmer around you everything will go back to normal, you'll see," Ariela assured him, reaching behind Lance to scratch slightly behind his ears. "I'll help you two work with it, and in a few day's you'll be back to being the emo-little-shit you were when I met you," she finished, and Keith snorted.

"I'm not actually emo, you know?" Keith asked, and Ariela's friendly smile went away, eyebrow quirking in a face that asked 'Seriously?'

"Don't make me sing Welcome to the black parade, kid," was all she said, and Keith groaned, resting his head on the table, making Lance laugh.

"Is that song about the marching band that you were obsessed with?" he asked his sister, and she nodded.

"Why are we talking about My Chemical Romance?" Shiro asked, looking around.

"Because Keith is still going through his emo -fingerless-gloves phase," Pidge answered.

"I thought you were trying to cheer me up," Keith exclaimed, sitting straight again.

"Yeah, but roasting you sure is fun," Lance smiled.

"You shut it, Lance. I was a witness of your Daddy Yankee phase," Ariela said. Lance tried to play it off, acting like he didn't know what the woman was talking about, but then she started singing: _¡A ella le gusta la gasolina!_

"You are Hamilton trash!" Lance screamed, in panic, trying to make her shut up, but she snorted.

"Who in our family isn't Hamilton trash, Lance?" she asked him, but he was too busy smiling because she had said 'our family'.

"You're right."

"I'm sorry, but I lost track of the conversation when we started talking about something called emo," Allura announced, raising her hand as if she was in a classroom.

"Oh, diddly duck, I hadn't realised their lack of human culture," Ariela said, turning to everyone with bright eyes. "I can turn them into meme trash like me!"

"NO! NO MORE MEMES!" Shiro fakely screamed.

Keith had relaxed in his chair, smiling at the turn the conversation had taken. He had been really scared that they were going to kick him out, maybe return him to Earth or even leave him in the nearest habitated planet. For one second, he had even considered the option they might hand him to the Galra, but they were too good people to do that.

No, instead of acting like actual adults, the adults were arguing about how memes were a right he (Shiro) couldn't take away from anyone.

# ***

"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked Keith, as he sat down in front of the man.

They were in the training room. They had all already eaten, so they had all the place to themselves, and Shiro had immediately gone to sit down on the mats when he had gone into the room, blindfolding himself, as Ariela had gone to look for something before starting.

"I'm..., great," Keith said, cringing.

He scared himself when his reflection appeared in the mirror, and all this heightened senses thing made him more than uncomfortable. For fuck's sake, he could smell what people felt. His new ears were extremely uncomfortable when he had tried his paladin helmet on and his skin felt strange. The only thing keeping him from actually hating himself as much as he had before the rest of the team knowing was their support.

"Your throat is okay, then," Shiro asked, taking a deep breath, shoulders still tense. Keith touched the little scar that was left on his neck, because of the burn of Shiro's Galra tech arm.

"If it makes you feel better, I got to cuddle Lance thanks to you," Keith said, licking his lips.

Shiro's head perked up, the hint of a smile appearing, and Keith was convinced that if he could see his eyes, they would be gleaming. Of course, Shiro knew about his feelings for the blue paladin, they were almost brothers, and he had caught Keith staring at Lance's back and ass many times for any excuse to be valid.

"Really? How?" he asked, leaning in, and Keith smiled.

"I was a little bit out of my mind when it happened anyway. He took me to his bedroom because my lock was broken and he let me sleep in his bed but I asked him to stay with me, and he did. God, Shiro, it was amazing," Keith ranted but stopped immediately when he heard steps and smelt burnt wood and storm.

"And?" Shiro asked, but Keith pinched him in the knee slightly before shushing him. The man frowned and was going to ask what the hell was happening, but Ariela sat down next to them, carrying a flask with hot water and something weird Keith had never seen before.

"I guessed we would be here for a while, so I went to prepare some mate," she explained.

"Chimarrão" Shiro sing sand, and Ariela looked at him with faked disgust.

"Yeah, sure. Whatever you say, darling," she said as she poured the hot water inside the mate, taking the tube for sipping between her lips and sucking, a weird sound coming out of the mate. She drank a little more, before pouring more water. She gently grabbed Shiro's wrist and opened his hand with her fingers, before putting the mate in his hand.

He drank it and hummed, surprised.

"You didn't use sugar," he commented, once he had finished.

"I'm willing to sacrifice myself only for today," she answered, before turning to look at Keith. "Okay, so I was thinking that you should just, re-bond," she started, looking at the red paladin in the eye as she explained herself. "Shiro knows the past you like the back of his hand, I have guessed, and your appearance changing made him believe you had changed. So, the best thing you can do is show him you didn't. We'll also slowly make him used to your new form without him looking at you," she finished, as Shiro bumped her arm with the mate blindly. She poured more water and offered it to Keith.

"No, thank you," she said, shaking his head. She nodded and sipped.

"So, I suggest you two start talking about the past when you met and all that. If you want I can go, but I'll stay close..., just in case."

"I don't have trouble with you staying," Shiro said, smiling kindly.

"Then I guess I don't either," Keith said.

"Well, I won't interrupt you," she said, before lying down on her stomach, still sipping from the mate. She took her mobile out of her pocket, connected the earphones and started playing music.

"Remember the day we met?" Shiro asked, fidgeting slightly.

It was a weird experience. She could see how both paladin's expressions changed, and she could smell their emotions too, recognising them thanks to some animalistic instinct that had awoken along with her genes, but she never knew what they were actually talking about. She knew Keith felt really sad most of the times, and she closed her eyes and let her sense of smell be the only thing to advert her if there was tension building when she saw how tears started to form in his eyes.

She would pass Shiro the mate from time to time, and she decided to spend this time doing nothing imagining them before this whole alien thing started. Keith at the Garrison, studying in a bunk bed or participating in a classroom, or even piloting something. Shiro happily sat around his family and friends, chatting away as the mate and food went around like it was usual in meetings.

She felt Keith's slightly warm hand getting near her before he actually touched her, and she opened her eyes, looking straight into his, smelling a little bit of fear that quickly went away. It must have been the surprise. She pulled her headphones off.

"And, are you feeling comfortable, Shiro?" she asked the man, looking at him.

"Yes," he nodded, solemnly. Ariela turned to Keith and signalled his ears, mouthing 'Can I?' and he frowned before nodding hesitantly.

The woman grabbed Shiro's hands, and he blindly let her guide them towards Keith's head. The red paladin's breath got stuck in his lungs when he realised what she was trying to do, and the man's hitched the second calloused and metallic fingers felt soft furr.

"Do you want to go on?" Ariela asked hi, noticing the change in his breathing, but he nodded. "Just take your time, feel them and think about how this is the same person you were talking to before. No differences," she told him, slowly letting go of his hands.

Keith stopped breathing, literally, not moving a millimetre while Shiro's fingers slowly felt his ears, before caressing them slightly and scratching. Keith's tension didn't go away.

"I...," Shiro started, licking his lips and taking a deep breath. "I think I'm ready to see him."

"Are you sure?" Keith asked, still not moving, and Shiro moved his hands away from him, to slowly undo the blindfold.

Ariela watched closely, paying attention to the way the air shifted, how smells changed, how muscles moved under skin, everything that could tell her if something was going to happen and let her stop it.

Shiro took the blindfold off, breathing already superficial, and he swallowed hard before slowly starting to open his eyes. Keith closed his, not wanting to see how the man would react at his sight, and that was the first mistake.

The black paladin searched for the indigo irises and he didn't find them, eyes fastly scanning Keith, only being able to focus on the colour of the skin, the ears and the claws. The air slowly started to fill with fear and Keith retreated, eyes still closed, moving too fast and scaring Shiro off.

The man jumped to his feet and stared at his friend with wide eyes, wanting to do something about the threat but stopping himself, because he had been talking with this gut earlier, and it was still the Keith he knew. But the itch to attack was growing stronger, as Keith stood up and got near him, trying to calm him down.

Ariela saw the arm starting to light up and pushed away, putting herself in between the two paladins. The teen thought she would try to calm the man down, be gentle with him, but her whole body language indicated defiance towards the man, protecting Keith.

Shiro gulped, suddenly focused only in the slitted pupils and the slow growl.

"No," the woman said with a firm tone. "He's a friend, not an enemy."

Keith expected him to stop, suddenly recover from the panic like he always seemed to do when he was with her, but his muscles only tensed and he closed his eyes, trying to control his breathing.

"Why don't you calm him down?" Keith asked, getting near the woman's back.

"I won't always be around. He has to learn that you are not someone he can attack and it will be okay," she said, remarking every word. "Because you are not the enemy."

Shiro's whole body was shaking, and Keith could smell the distress. He also noticed how Ariela's right hand was occupied by her bayard, not activated, but probably prepared for it.

"Move," Shiro told the woman, opening his eyes. His pupils were extremely dilated, and he seemed mildly out of his mind. Keith didn't blame him, he was conditioned to attack every Galra he saw.

"I won't, so if you want to get to him you'll have to get me out of the way because this is not right," she repeated, starting to actually growl, a low rumble coming from her chest, as she showed him her teeth.

"I have to."

"No, you don't."

Shiro whined, and dropped to his knees grabbing his head with force and groaning. Keith felt a tug in his stomach, he needed to help Shiro to feel better. Ariela noticed that this was not going somewhere good too because she spoke to him without taking her eyes off the man.

"I think we should leave it here for today," she said. "I'll circle him, you stay behind me the whole time."

"I'm capable of defending myself," Keith said, still obliging, as she started to slowly move around Shiro, who was still struggling on the floor.

"I know, but I also know you wouldn't be able to hurt him. Now go," she told him. Shiro got up suddenly, advancing towards them with a scowl on his face, nostrils flared, and Ariela actually threw his hand at him, almost letting her claws cut through skin, and hissed in a way that made her sound like a cat. "Go," she insisted.

Keith turned around and sprinted, before hearing steps and struggling. When he looked over his shoulder he saw Shiro chasing him, but Ariela run fastly and jump at his back, making him fall to start wrestling on the floor.

"Let me go!" was the last thing he heard, as he closed the training room door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ¡A ella le gusta la gasolina!: She likes fuel! (T.N: Daddy Yankee is a reggaeton singer really popular in all Latinoamerica, and if this song is one of his most famous, as they used to play it every time when it came out. It's like the dark past of every latin, and we sometimes sing it with nostalgy and shame XD)


	14. [NOT UPDATED]

Wrestling with Shiro was hell, and there were moments when she actually feared he would hurt her, but she kept going, pinning his hands to the floor, trying to immobilise him with her body, and talking him out of the state he was in. The smell in the room didn't help her control herself to not hurt Shiro too; everything screamed danger, threat and defence.

She didn't know how much time they were fighting, rolling around the training room floor, crashing into things and trying to pin each other down. She was glad that, after a few tries, he stopped trying to get rid of her to go after Keith and just started thinking of her as the danger he had to eliminate.

They were both exhausted, standing a few feet apart from the other and panting, both in fighting stance and waiting for the other to move. Shiro's arm deactivated and he let himself drop to his knees, closing his eyes and rubbing his face with his hands.

"Did I hurt you?" was the first thing he asked, as he just laid down on the floor. "Please tell me I didn't."

"You didn't. But you tried to go after Keith again," she answered, slowly relaxing, walking towards him and sitting next to the man, looking at him with tired eyes, as her breathing evened out.

"This won't work. I'm just too damaged to be around him," Shiro practically sobbed, and Ariela wanted to scowl him, tell him how they would make it all out of the situation they were in as a team, but she started to rub circles on his back instead. "He is kind of my little brother, you know? Not being able to look at him is just killing me," he explained himself.

"You will make it happen. It's just that you were expecting for a simple chat to erase a whole year of abuse," she answered, as she laid down next to him on her back, looking at the worried grey eyes.

"I feel like just lying here for days and dying," Shiro admitted after a long but not awkward silence, turning to his side and facing the woman. She snorted.

"Oh, god. Do I know that feeling," she said, but the man didn't seem to be cheering up, so she sighed. "Listen. I went through some stuff a few years ago, and I thought I would never be able to recover from it, but I did. Sometimes memories come back, yes, but I learnt to deal with them," she told him, swallowing hard. Shiro frowned and stayed quiet for a few seconds.

"Lance told me something had happened to you a few years ago. Can I ask what it was?" He spoke slowly, almost as if he didn't want to scare her off and end up without an answer.

"It's not that important," she tried to evade.

"The more we know each other the better," Shiro said with a smile, and she squinted her eyes, before sighing again.

"When I was sixteen a guy tried to rape me," she said, fastly. Shiro's jaw clenched and he sat up fastly, not having expected that. "He didn't get far. I broke his arm when he was trying to unhook my bra," she finished.

"Why?" Shiro asked, breathily.

"Because men are pigs? I don't know. He was drunk, but he still was big and scary. He took advantage of me being shocked at the beginning, but I snapped out of it and saved myself," she answered, shrugging.

"That's why you reacted so badly when the panther tried to control your body. It reminded you of that. And that is also why you didn't feel comfortable with me touching you after it," Shiro mumbled, more to himself than to Ariela, as the pieces slowly fell into place.

"I was terrified of you that day. You were big and could easily pin me down. That was I wouldn't let you get near me," she smiled, and Shiro slid back, giving her space.

"Do I scare you now? I didn't know. I'm sorry, I won't get that near if it makes you uncomfortable," he started to rant, and Ariela smelt how he started to feel distressed again.

She knew what touch starvation was, and she also knew what it felt like to finally find someone who you could just hug, or hold their hand or even cuddle. Physical contact was a great way of bonding and it made you feel safe and at home. Lance had taught her all of that by hanging out when they had first met; he had rested his head on her lap with confidence, or randomly hugged her and picked her up. She understood why Shiro was starting to get nervous at the idea of having to let that go.

"You don't, Shiro, it's okay," she started, getting up and near him. He still seemed unsure. "It was just because I had been triggered, I don't like anyone getting near me after stuff like that, but you don't scare me now. In fact, now I'm like five feet seven I feel like a goddess that could smash you," she joked, putting a hand on his shoulder.

"Okay. But if you ever feel uncomfortable you have to tell me, understood?" he asked her, and she smiled.

"Loud and clear."

Another comfortable silence followed her answer, but this one turned out to be longer. She let herself lay on the floor again, slowly becoming aware of her own body and how tired and damaged it felt. Some spots ached with the familiar numb pain of being slightly hit, and others were a little bit stronger, like where Shiro had accidentally kneeled her inner thigh, or when their foreheads had bumped together.

"Who was the guy?" Shiro asked, breaking the silence, and making her notice she had closed her eyes.

"Um... It was one of Lance's older brother's friends, at his birthday party," she answered, without bothering opening her eyes. She felt clothes shifting, and Shiro's warmth suddenly felt really close to her body.

"How's Lance family? Is it big?", Shiro asked, wanting to change the subject and forget about what the woman had just told him.

"You have no idea, mate. He has three older siblings and three younger. Then there're the cousins, the sibling's partners, the aunts and uncles, and the really close friends, like me," she answered.

Shiro looked at her with a small smile. Her everything had changed the second he had asked about Lance's family, and she was smiling so purely it was something amazing. He had never seen her that happy ever.

"Do you think someone will scowl me for sleeping here?" she asked, getting her head comfortable between her arms.

"Would you be able to sleep here? On the floor?" he asked, frowning.

"I can sleep anywhere," was the answer.

"I can take you to your bedroom if you want. I really owe you," he said, starting to get up, and a smug grin appeared on the woman's lips, as she held her arms out for Shiro to pick her up.

"I was expecting you to make the offer," she told him, as he slid one of his arms through her back and the other through the back of her knees. She immediately got comfortable against his chest and, before actually making out of the room, she was fast asleep, slightly purring.

# ***

It was breakfast time, and there was some sort of tense air in between most of the paladins. Hunk would look at Keith from time to time, looking like a worried friend, and Keith and Lance seemed to be avoiding each other, somewhat letting everyone know that it was the bad type of uncomfortable. Ariela had expected that something good and romantic had "accidentally" happened, but nope; Lance's aura screamed regret and sadness.

Almost two months of Ariela helping Shiro and Keith and saving a few planets to make allies had passed, and everyone knew that spirits were slowly falling apart, and although everyone knew why that was happening, no one dared discuss it. Because it was Keith; the sudden change into a Galra had not only affected Shiro. Although Allura and Coran had shown themsleves to be fully supportive with the whole business, everyone could notice how their exchanges with Keith had changed; there were fewer and they were really tense. Hunk had even heard themm discussing if they could still trust Keith, if it wouldn't be more convinient to just find another paladin and return Keith back to Earth. Lance had actually fully supported Keith at the beginning. He didn't have a dark past with the Galra, just a dark future, and he was absolutely sure that Keith knew just as much as them about this whole changing species thing. He had tried to talk to the guy; their bond wasn't really tight, but maybe Keith would appreciate Lance talking to him. After all, he knew what being different and being treated weirdly because of that meant. Allo? A cinnamon roll kid with Cuban accent and Latin surname migrating to the USA was a really delicate subject, over all if the cinnamon roll's classmates were children of racist pigs. The point is that Keith didn't react well to Lance saying that he kind of knew how he felt, and Lance would have hated him for treating him the way he treated him, but being in love with the guy and the look of utter dispair in his face had dulled the anger.

The good news in this whole mess were that Shiro was now able to see Keith without getting swallowed by a vortex of bad memories and instinct to protect himself, but (on the other side) he didn't act with ease around Keith. This made the younger one really nervous, a thing that showed itself at how training got more rage-filled and the frequency he picked up fights with Lance.

Knowing that Keith was going through a really rough time, but not being able to do nothing but argue and physically fight with him was making the blue paladin a little depressed, along with his homesickness violently growing stronger, as his sister's eleventh birthday neared and he wasn't there to celebrate with her.

This made him stick to Ariela like a lost puppy, not letting her alone even one second during their spare time. Ariela loved being around her brother, but there was a limit to how much time she could spend around people without taking a break, so she slowly began to get affected too.

Hunk was worried about everyone, and Pidge felt nervous because of the crippling air in between everyone, causing her to start spending less time with them, like at that exact moment, as she was nowhere to be seen.

"Good morning," Allura greeted, as she got in the kitchen, watching how the paladins had breakfast in silence. "We have our next mission already," she said, sitting down in one of the chairs.

"What is it?" Hunk asked voice filled with fake excitement, trying to spread it to his teammates. It didn't quite work.

"There was a call from a planet, Grigk. They are known for having really good warriors and, before Alteans, where the one's standing up against the Galra. They have turned neutral since the last time I heard from them, but they are interested in making an alliance with us," she explained. "We'll be travelling there."

"What are the grigkeans like?" Shiro asked, and Lance noticed the dark circles under his tired eyes for the first time.

"Well. They are quite similar to humans, but their culture is a little bit..., agh," Allura said, making a face of disgust. Ariela's eyebrows rose as the rest of the team frowned. "They are incredibly egocentric and selfish. Specially the men," she explained herself, disgust only growing. 

Hunk was going to comment something, but suddenly all the lights started turning on and off, and music filled the air, coming from little speakers that were installed on the roof of every room in the Castle.

_I know that we are upside down, so hold your tongue and hear me out. I know that we were made to break so what? I don't mind_.

"What the quiznack is going on?" Coran screamed from some room near the kitchen, and then the lights and the music definitely went out. Silence filled the environment, no one saying a word because of the shock, and a few seconds later, the light's were on again.

Worried and weirded out looks were exchanged in between the paladin's sitting at the table and Allura.

"Do you think it's the contaminated crystal again?" Keith asked, breaking the silence.

"What contaminated crystal?" Ariela inquired, looking at everyone's faces.

"Don't worry, Coran probably already is in the control deck checking on everything. He'll tell us if there's something wrong with the Castle," Allura answered, slowly hunching over the table and letting her body rest on it. She looked miserable, and seeing her like that sank on the paladin's bones as if it was a freezing cold wanting to kill them.

Lance spoke after a few minutes of silence.

"How would the crystal know Zed's songs?"

# ***

"Hunk," Keith called from his bedroom door. The teen turned towards his teammate, immediately picking up the signs of sadness and discomfort on Keith's surroundings and standing up.

If there was something about him that he had been proud of his whole life, was his ability to know who was feeling down and how he put energy into helping them. So, when he had found Keith lying on the training deck's floor crying last night, Hunk had activated all his anti-sadness weapons and went to check on what was wrong.

The decision had gone away when he smelt burnt flesh and looked down at Keith. He was pulling at his hair while he cried, not aware of or completely ignoring a wound in his stomach. It had the shape of the gladiator's weapon, and Hunk just _knew_ that Keith was trying to fight his worries away, without the right equipment and probably setting the gladiator in one of the highest levels, without worrying about the fact that he could get seriously hurt.

"Hey, buddy. What's wrong?" he asked, as he signalled him to get closer, before commanding the door to close.

"I...," Keith started, but he stopped himself, before signalling the bed where he had been sitting. "Can I hang out?" he asked, and Hunk smiled warmly at him, knowing that pushing Keith around wouldn't work to know what was wrong.

"Of course. I wasn't doing anything important anyway," he says, marking the page of the book he had been reading, before closing it.

"What is it?" Keith asked, as he sat on the bed and took off his boots.

"A novel. Ariela lent it to me when I noticed that the textbook she had given me was in Spanish," Hunk told him, reminding how she had explained that the language barrier was something really blurry for her, and that she crossed it all the time, just as many of her friends, so she didn't have the fact that most people in that Castle didn't fluently speak Spanish and that she hadn't remembered that the book was in that language either.

"Oh, that's really nice of her," Kieth muttered, as he got on the bed, curling into himself, and resting his back against the wall, chin pressed against his knees. "Shiro really seems to like her," he added, after a while of silence.

"She knows how to deal with his PTSD like a professional, so he relies a lot on her. And she's an adult, so he doesn't think of her as someone he has to take care of," Hunk said, already sensing where this was going.

"I know. It's just... I'm an awful person," Keith said, groaning as he hid his face in between his legs.

"No, you are not. Your best friend has distanced from you and you're feeling bad about it. That's not being an awful person, that's being human," he told him, getting near Keith slowly.

"Shiro's like a brother to me. I hate that he's away because my damned fault, so I'm trying to throw it upon someone else. That's what makes me an awful person," he explained, and Hunk slid his arm around his shoulders to catch him in a strong side hug.

"Keith, we are all going through a lot, but especially you. Jesus christ, you even sort of changed species! You haven't found the right way to cope with it yet," he tried to convince him, but Keith only sank deeper into himself.

"I'm fucking everything up. I always screw up in practice's, Shiro can't bear being near me, my relationship with Lance is even worse that it used to be," the red paladin continued, as tears started streaming down his face, and he hid his face in Hunk's shoulder. "You should find someone else to pilot red, someone that doesn't harm the team."

"You don't harm the team. It's just that we have been in space for almost two months, without seeing our families, and we are tense. It'll start to rub off as we get more comfortable with each other," Hunk replied, plain hugging Keith.

There was a silence that lasted several minutes, only filled with Keith sniffing and sometimes sobbing before he managed to stop crying, but he still held tight to Hunk.

"You still refuse to go to the healing pods?" Hunk asked, breaking the silence, referring to the wound on Keith's stomach. The boy nodded, before taking his face off of his shoulder, looking at him with bloodshot eyes, decorated with dark circles. He was a mess.

"I don't want it to go away. It's the only thing that actually feels real," he answered. The pain, numbed by something Hunk had given hm from the infirmary after patching him up when he had refused to go to the healing pods, was working as an anchor, preventing him from totally dissociate from the real world.

# ***

When the door opened and the room filled with the dull light from the hallway, Shiro's eyes were still filled with tears and his hands were still shaking. He had managed to calm himself down on his bedroom, but he was still feeling scared and _tereibly alone_ , and Ariela had told him to come to her if he ever felt like he needed to be with someone.

He got near the bed and stopped dead in his tracks when he noticed that she was sleeping peacefully, arms tucked under the pillow and laying on her right side, neck exposed and face relaxed, making her look completely vulnerable.

He didn't want to wake her up, but the ache in his chest was insisting strongly in doing so. Shiro looked towards the door, trying to force himself out and back to his own room, but instead he just sat next to the bed, as he tried to convince his agitated mind that he wasn't alone and that it could go back to sleep.

Although the soft breathing of the sleeping woman gave him a feeling of ease that he was slowly becoming addicted to, every time he blinked the image of his dreams was there to make him panic again. Keith in a Galra uniform, claws and mouth stained with blood as the team laid dead around him, Shiro being the only one alive to hear the animalistic growling coming from his chest.

He fell asleep after fifteen minutes of sitting in the poorly lit bedroom, listening to Ariela's breathing, and he dreamt the same thing, only that he didn't wake up so early, and made it to the part where Keith turned and walked towards him, to start killing him in a slow and painful way.

Shiro jolted awake, noticing how his head had dropped to his knees because of the intense neck pain, when Keith clawed at his face, almost cutting one of his eyes off. _Aaaaand_ it was all back; the panic making his body feel numb, the shallow breathing, the tears, the pain in his chest...

"Shiro?" a voice asked behind him, and he turned to face a still-half-asleep Ariela, that was looking at him with a deep frown and confused eyes, before noticing his teary eyes, and starting to sit on her bed. "Hey, what's wrong? Come 'ere," she said, opening the covers and signalling him to get near.

The man stood up with wobbly legs and crawled into the bed, hugging the woman close to him and trying to focus on the floral smell that her hair had, and her heartbeat against his chest and her breathing.

"Deep breaths. For me, okay?" she asked him, as she started to rub circles on his back with one hand and scratched his nape with the other.

They moved slowly, as they tried to be more comfortable and Shiro searched to be able to _hear_ the calm and lazy heartbeat, and before any of them noticed, she was sitting on his lap, hugging him tightly, as he rested his ear against her chest and counted each heartbeat out loud.

Shiro managed to calm down by 213.

"Are you feeling better now?" Ariela asked him, as she slightly made him sway from one side to another, the slow rhythm helping him to distract his mind.

"I dreamt Keith killed us all," he said instead of answering, and Ariela's swaying stopped, as she swallowed hard.

"You know he would never do that, Shiro. He might look different, but he's still Keith," she told him, speaking in almost a whisper before she bit her lip. If the red paladin ever knew that his best friend had dreamt of him murdering them he would feel like shit for life.

"I know, and I hate myself for even thinking of it, but I couldn't help it. It scares me that he might change in the future because of this whole thing, and I'm not able to do anything. Even if I could actually get near him, I wouldn't know what to do," he replied, and Ariela made him look at her with a hand on his chin.

"Everything will be okay, Shiro. Did you hear me?" she answered, looking at him with big golden eyes, filled with something that he couldn't place, but made him feel safe.

"Everything will be okay," he repeated, and the woman smiled approvingly at him, as she made him lay down in the bed next to her.

"I don't care if you don't actually sleep, but at least try to, okay?" she told him, as she let go of him, and laid facing him. Shiro wanted to slap himself for asking something as he was going to ask, but he did it anyways, knowing it helped him sleep.

"Can we cuddle?" he asked, expecting a frown from Ariela, but she nodded almost instantly.

"Do you prefer little or big spoon?" she asked him, with a warm and sleepy smile.

"I'm always big spoon," was his answer, and she closed her eyes.

"I didn't ask you that. I asked you which one you preferred," she said as if she was talking to a little kid, making Shiro bite his cheek and think. Although he really liked hugging Ariela, he gave amazing hugs.

"Can I be the little spoon?" he asked, looking at the woman's eyes somewhat shyly. She laughed and nodded. He turned around and she snaked her arms around him, pressing her face against his shoulder blades and tangling their legs.

"Good night, Shiro," she told him, already sounding sleepy,

"G'night," he replied, focusing his sight in a pile of books that was against the wall facing him.

# ***

 _I've had a little chat with the black lion_ Bagheera said the moment she walked in the hangar, dressed in pink leggings and a grey t-shirt. A mug filled with something Hunk had prepared that morning was in her hand and a book in the other. It had become a custom for her, just sitting in the chair in the panther's cockpit and read or listen to music, enjoying the feeling of their mental connection buzzing in her brain.

"And what did he tell you?" she asked, as she walked towards the panther's open mouth.

_He told me that both his and Red's paladins are feeling really bad lately, but that Keith boy doesn't count with the luxury of your person to calm him down_ he answered, and Ariela could feel the eyebrow rising in her mind, as she plopped down on the pilot chair, without opening her book and sipping from her mug.

"What? Are you jealous?" she asked with a teasing and cool tone, but curiosity picking at her brain at the thought of what had been Black's exact words, as she remembered how she and Shiro had cuddled last night.

_I am nothing but curious. You two seem to be close in a peculiar kind of way, not like you are with Blue's paladin. Are you trying to lure the man?_ he asked, and Ariela frowned.

"Lure him? What are you talking about?" she responded, truly confused at the panther's words. She felt him get confused and he thought for a few seconds before answering.

_You know, trying to attract him and turn him into your mate. That's what females do, lure males_ the panther explained himself, making Ariela gag.

"No! I'm not trying to lure him!" she exclaimed, staring with indignation at the panther's roof. "I mean... Yeah, Shiro's really hot and an amazing guy, but I'm just trying to help him through this whole deal," she expatiated, and the panther chuckled.

_You would totally mate him if he wanted, though_ he said, making blood rush towards Ariela's face and ears. If the panther had been a person, she would have thrown the book at him, but it was useless making her favourite novel slam against the metal wall.

"There are times I really hate you," she mumbled.

_Don't worry, I know you would mate with the princess too if she wanted_.

"What the hell, Bagheera?" she screamed, throwing her arms up to the roof.

_You have really vivid dreams, I must tell you. And I don't think the black paladin would be that dominant just as I think the princess wouldn't let you manhandle her_ he went on, and the blush extended to her neck and chest as she got up from the chair and walked towards the exit.

"This is it, I'm not talking about my wet dreams with you. Have a good day, sir," she screamed at the panther, as she stepped out of it, not noticing Lance standing there until it was too late.

"Oh yes. You know about my dreams with Keith, now you're telling me about yours," her brother said, with a bright smile on his lips. Ariela just walked past him, growling loudly and making him retreat, before looking for a peaceful place to read in.


	15. [NOT UPDATED]

Fast and furious steps could be heard from his bedroom, as he paced around the little space he had, trying to keep himself awake by not letting his body rest. Keith was actively trying to ignore the ache in his body and the way his eyelids wanted to fall shut.

He hadn't slept in two days, and no matter how much weird dark-green-liquid-that-Ariela-was addicted-to he drank, the tiredness was getting the best of him. His pacing slowly came to a stop, then he dropped on the floor, and then he fell asleep. It was the same nightmare over and over again: he killed the whole team, his mind deaf to their pleas and their futile attempts of making him snap out of the Galran feral state he had gone into, as he slashed and bit throats open.

Hunk was always the fastest to die, and Lance was the hardest. Somehow, his throat being sliced open by Keith didn't take away his ability to continue speaking, so he would start recriminating to Keith everything, telling him how much he hated him and how worthless he was, how he shouldn't have trusted him ever. And then the light in his eyes died, just as him in Keith's arms, and although he wanted to clutch to his body and cry, beg Lance to come back and don't leave him alone, his dream self will drop the dead weight to the floor and turn towards Shiro with a bloody smile, body shivering in excitement as he noticed the terrified look in the man's eyes and the tears streaming down of them.

He woke up with a yelp when he made four deep cuts in Shiro's face, the dark environment making him panic slightly before the lights slowly started to turn on again to allow him see he was safe in his bedroom, not in a pool of his friend's blood. Despite knowing that it had all been a dream (the dream that he had been having ever since he had turned into a half Galra) he started crying, drowning in desperation. The same intense ache he had been feeling in his chest every time he didn't feel well made its guest appearance and Keith sobbed louder.

It had taken him his sweet time to finally decipher what that ache meant, and it had been Red who had given him the answer. It was the longing for the pack's support.

_You are now a member of a pack, Keith. You share a profound bond with the rest of the paladins, similar and even stronger to a family's. Now your animal instincts are stronger, and they tell you to reach for your pack when you feel bad_ the lion had explained to him, as they both scrambled through each other's mind during their scheduled bonding time.

He felt weak and pathetic, standing out and walking out to the hallway, actually thinking of waking someone up to accompany him, but he was oh so tired and broken that he didn't believe he could carry on much longer like this, and they would be arriving at a potential ally planet the next afternoon, so he needed to be mildly okay.

Naturally, Shiro was out of limits, so he walked towards Hunk's bedroom. Ever since he had found him after his fight with Lance in the training room, he had become something like his moral support, always there for him if he needed him, and with this new pack-connection thing going on, Keith had been needing him a lot. But, when he reached the door, it was locked. His heart shrank in his chest, his mind immediately and unwillingly taking the locked door as a rejection instead of what it truly was (a simple locked door).

He then walked with slow steps and still sobbing, the ache growing stronger, towards Pidge's bedroom, and the door was opened, but the girl was nowhere to be seen. He normally would have taken his sweet time to register the mess (sticky notes covering the walls, notebooks and pieces of technology scattered everywhere), but every time he didn't find someone he felt a little bit worse, and he didn't have enough energy to explore the girls bedroom, so he kept going on his search for someone.

His next option was Ariela. He didn't feel _that_ comfortable with the woman, but she was higher on the list than Lance, and it wasn't that she didn't like her, it was just that he didn't really know her, and the jealousy because of Shiro was always there. He walked to the room and the door was unlocked too, but when he opened it, he saw that she was already with someone. She was lying on her back, and Shiro on his stomach, head and part of his shoulder resting on the woman's chest. She had a hand tangled in his hair and was mumbling something about _those fucking hipsters _.__

__If his heart had shrunk when he had found Hunk's door closed, it had disappeared when he was them like that. He stepped out of the room, fast as the flash, and stood in the poorly lit hallway, feeling the tears falling down his face and his lower lip trembling, as he sank in himself, not wanting to admit that he had only one person on his list, as he had horribly screamed at him and broken the little bit of relationship they had._ _

__He walked towards Lance's room as slowly as he could, trying to postpone the moment, but once he was in front of the door, he just went for it. He opened it, immediately spotting the sleeping teen on the bed, sprawled on it, listening to music in Pidge's headphones and eyes covered with a blue eye mask._ _

__With a command the door closed behind him, Keith feeling a little bit more comfortable about waking Lance up if he couldn't see the rejection in his face, and neared the bed, pinching Lance's chest with his index finger, trying to wake him up._ _

__Lance jolted awake, removing the headphones and sending them flying towards the mattress with a flick of his wrist. He removed his eye mask, barely able to make up Keith's figure in the darkness, and frowned._ _

__"What? Did you feel like screaming at someone in the middle of the night?" he asked, turning around and giving his back to the teen, making Keith feel miserable, his ears sticking to his skull in shame and hands fidgeting with the sheets._ _

__"Lance," he started, voice broken, and the blue paladin's eyes opened widely when he recognised the crack on his teammate's voice, turning around fastly and commanding the lights to slowly turn on. The dim light let him see red eyes, dark circles under them and tracks of tears running down Keith's pained face.__

__"Hey, I'm sorry, buddy, I didn't mean it. What's wrong?" he asked, sitting up on the bed, as Keith cleaned his face with the back of his hands, looking like a little kid._ _

__"I had a nightmare," he started, in between hiccups, and Lance stared at him with worried eyes. The red paladin tried to explain what the nightmare had been about, but tears pooled in his eyes and he sobbed louder, Lance immediately reaching out for him and pulling him in for a hug. "I'm so sorry, Lance. I didn't mean to treat you like that, I'm horrible," he started saying, to repeat himself over and over again._ _

__Lance panicked, not knowing how to stop this river of bad emotions Keith was feeling. He resolved by taking the same approach he would with his little siblings, tucking Keith with his body and rubbing his back, as he whispered comforting phrases to the teen's ear. And, luckily, Keith stopped sobbing after a few minutes, turning into a crying ball of warmth sitting on top of him, still crying in silence._ _

__"I'm sorry I woke you up, but I keep having the same nightmare over and over again and I couldn't sleep," Keith said, after minutes of silence, as Lance kept rubbing his back._ _

__"Don't worry, it's okay," he said, as he slowly pushed Keith apart from him. "You can sleep with me if you want, okay? Just don't cry anymore," he said, before doubtingly biting his lip and adding: "I don't like seeing you like this."_ _

__Keith's ears perked up and his purple eyes opened widely, surprised, before he relaxed and slowly nodded, starting to lay down on the bed, without taking his eyes off of Lance. The blue paladin covered them both with the blankets, and laid down next to him, to tuck Keith against him yet again, resting his chin between fluffy ears and soft hair, as the other teen just relaxed against his body and enjoyed the calming scent and the warmth._ _

# ***

__None of them noticed where the situation was going until it had already happened._ _

__Shiro was having a nightmare in which Keith was captured and brainwashed by Haggar, and they forced him to sit down and watch how Zarkon tortured him, cutting through pale naked skin with a serrated knife, making Keith tremble and pant in pain, as he wasn't allowed to scream. The man struggled against the killer grip of the soldiers holding him down, until he managed to break free and run towards the emperor, punching him strongly in the stomach._ _

__Ariela woke up to distressed sounds and a too strong grip on her right shoulder, causing a lightning-like pain to shoot down it. She had barely opened her eyes to see Shiro still asleep but moving on top of her, when he rose his arm and lowered it, the fist connecting with her stomach._ _

__She let out a short scream, as he sat up gasping, breathing suddenly turned something hard, and the grip in her shoulder vanished, as Shiro woke up and sat up in front of her, confused and worried, as he watched how the woman slightly wheezed, clutching the sheets with white knuckles._ _

__"What...?" he started to ask, but then he looked to his side and noticed his Galra arm activated, pieces slowly falling into place, and Ariela put a hand on his shoulder._ _

__"I'm okay, don't worry," she said, voice sounding strained and breath laboured, and he backed away from her touch as if his mere contact could hurt her. He got out of the bed, taking a few steps back, raising his hands in sign of regret._ _

__"I'm really sorry, Ariela. I didn't...," he started, breath hitching before he groaned and turned to run off into the hallway._ _

__By the time she made it to his door, Shiro had already locked himself up in his bedroom, and she could hear him sob from time to time. Although she insisted for at least fifteen minutes, the man refused to listen to her and didn't open the door, so she gave up and walked to her bedroom._ _

# ***

__Lance had to admit that is bayard being a big ass and heavy gun had its perks, as he lifted Ariela from the floor and threw her across the mats with just a little bit of difficulty. His whole body had started to become more muscular since he had been put under the ruthless training schedule Allura had made them, going from plain stomach to a four pack harder than his sister's, strong legs and even stronger arms, that were put under more exercise as he had to carry the heavy gun around._ _

__Ariela rolled around on the floor and immediately got up in one swift-Natasha-Romanoff-like movement, putting her body in fighting stance again, as she quickly lifted her shirt to sweep the sweat of her skin._ _

__Lance's smug grin went away when he noticed the huge darkening bruise on the woman's stomach and started to walk towards her. Ariela picked his brother's tension at the second, and lowered her fists and frowned at him._ _

__"What's wrong?" she asked him, but when his fingers closed at the hem of her white t-shirt and he lifted, she jolted away,¡. "What the crap, Lance?" she asked him, crossing her arms over her chest. Pidge and Keith stopped practising on their mat area to look at them._ _

__"What happened?" he asked, signalling the place where he had seen the gigantic bruise, and Ariela's ears dropped a little, frown disappearing as she relaxed her posture a little, shooting a doubtful look towards the place where Shiro and Hunk were still practising their hand to hand._ _

__"It was a small incident, it's nothing serious. Don't worry," she told him, looking at him in the eye, noticing how the pair stopped their fight and turned to look towards them._ _

__Shiro had avoided her the whole morning, barely greeting her when they had crashed in the kitchen, before running off to the training deck, where Coran had found him beating the crap out of the gladiator._ _

__"Later?" Lance asked, knowing when his sister didn't want to speak about something in front of certain people._ _

__"Later," she nodded, before sweeping the floor with her legs and sending Lance crashing to the mats, pinning him down with her body._ _

# ***

__Grigk was an exact (to alien standards) replica of Earth, and they all felt so sick, watching through the wide picture window in the control deck as the Castle of Lions descended into an already prepared surface, where lots of grigkeans where waiting for them. It was a valley in the middle of a city that was a mix of rustic and technological paradise._ _

__Grigkeans were tall as fuck, all around six feet six inches, with strong and muscled bodies, even the women. They had dark brown skin and jet black hair, but deep magenta eyes. The women wore fancy dresses and jewels, while the men wore long tunics with bright colours._ _

__The welcoming pretended to be warm, but it wasn't, and the paladins felt more than uncomfortable as they greeted the grigkeans authorities and followed them to the government house (because Grigk was ruled by a massive democracy)._ _

__Ariela was the one that didn't notice the whole thing, as she was too busy worrying about how Shiro had locked down and seemed to avoid her as much as possible. Yes, the punch had hurt and she had a massive bruise that was already turning purple, just like the finger shaped marks on her shoulder, but she wasn't mad at him and she wanted to talk to the man, but he kept avoiding her._ _

__"You'll see, princess Allura, that there are certain conditions for us to form an alliance with you," Zover, the president of that godawful planet, said, making Ariela look up from the table they had all sat around, and pay a little attention._ _

__In fact, it had been the shift in the atmosphere and the smell that had shaken her out of her thoughts. The air was tense suddenly, filled with the smell of challenge and..., something else that she wasn't able to recognise._ _

__"Like what?" Allura asked, seeming completely relaxed on her chair, as she looked at the grigkean dressed in a green tunic._ _

__"Well, it's just one in fact. There's a certain..., tribe that formed hundreds of years ago. It's a group of women that don't like being controlled, so they ran off to the forest and live there like..., savages. We have tried everything to make them come back, but it was to no avail," he answered._ _

__"What would you want us to do?" Allura asked coldly. Everything in her body language screamed she would rather be somewhere else, no matter how important it was for them to have allies, overall a planet that had been able to resist ten thousand years of Galra empire._ _

__"You would have to go and convince them of coming back to the city," he answered, with a (fake) warm smile, as he leant into the black and thin table. "But I'm afraid the men would have to stay behind, as they only accept women in their territories," he added._ _

__"Why is it so important to you that they come back to the city?" Allura asked, not having a single dumb hair and immediately noticing that there was something fishy behind all this. But Zover didn't seem intimidated, as he shrugged._ _

__"They have settled down in a territory that has been proved to be vital to the development of new technology, as a certain material can only be found there. As long as they are there, be can't reach it," he explained, friendliness and warmth gone from his eyes._ _

__Allura seemed to think it twice, as she slowly tapped her trimmed nails against the black wood. She shot a look to Coran, and Ariela was certain that they were having a telepathic conversation, debating whether this alliance was worth the trouble or not. Coran blinked once and Allura turned towards Zover._ _

__"Is it the same if we manage them to move from the area you need to be cleared?" she asked, and her body language gave away the fact that she wouldn't accept the deal if the answer was no._ _

__"Exactly the same," the president answered, with a wide smile that looked too much like the Jokers for any of the paladins of the Alteans to fully trust him._ _

__"Then we'll do it. Meanwhile, you could help our paladins out with the maintenance of the Castle," Allura said, already standing up, the paladins and the royal advisor following her example. "Is there something we need to know before going to meet this tribe?" she asked, as she started to walk away._ _

__"They are pretty tough, I must warn you," was all Zover answered, before dismissing them with a gesture of his hand._ _

# ***

__"Shiro," Ariela barged into his room, not bothering to knock or announce herself, as she walked towards the man with fast steps, making him retreat at the same speed, trying to maintain the distance between them, but the woman didn't stop and his back ended hitting a wall. "We need to talk," she said, once she was in front of him, hand on her left hip and face serious._ _

__"I'm really sorry, you have no idea how much I regret what happened, and I can assure you it won't happen again. I'm totally okay if you don't want to get near me anymore," he said, fastly, sticking his body to the wall, feeling small under her gaze. Her eyebrows knitted together._ _

__"Does it look like I don't want to be near you?" she asked, signaling the little space there was between them. "No, Shiro. You got it wrong. I'm not scared of you, nor mad at you. I understand what you did and why. You were having a horrible nightmare and your body reacted, you didn't want to hurt me. I know you'd never want to," she told him, putting a hand on his shoulder as she looked at him with soft golden eyes._ _

__"It's still wrong," he said, swallowing hard._ _

__"Once I kicked Lance's older brother and broke his rib while sleep walking, and we're still friends," Ariela deadpanned, and Shiro's surprised expression made her smile. "Are we good?" she asked, and he nodded. "Will you stop avoiding me?" he nodded again. "Perfect," and then she was hugging him._ _

__She had slipped her arms across his waist and tightened them around him, as Shiro slowly came to the realisation that everything was, in fact, okay and that he could still count on her when he wasn't feeling well. He returned the hug, pressing the woman against him and burying his face on her hair, lazily tied in a half up half down hairstyle._ _

__"I will be gone for a few days," she started. "So if you have any problem sleeping or anything you can go to the guys, okay? I'm not the only teammate that cares about you," she finished, separating her face from his body to look at him in the eyes. "Understood?" Shiro smiled awkwardly._ _

__"Loud and clear."_ _

# ***

__Bagheera was happy that he could actually go in this mission with Ariela, not having to be left behind like it had happened in Menosfor, but he tried really hard to not let that line of thought slip towards the woman's mind. It was unavoidable, though, and she chuckled at the happiness the opportunity brought the panther._ _

__"What is it?" Allura asked, with a smile on her face._ _

__"Nothing, just the panther being himself," she answered, taking her eyes off of the main screen for a second to look at the princess, before putting them "on the road" again. There were a few more minutes of silence between them, making Ariela slightly uncomfortable and start to wonder why Allura had refused to ride with Pidge on the green lion._ _

__"So, Ariela," the princess started, before clearing her throat, as if she had read the woman's thought and she was about to answer the question. "I've been wanting to talk with you about Shiro for some time."_ _

__"Oh, yeah? Shoot," she said, as she focused on making the panther raise slightly to avoid a chain of mountains.  
"Well. We have known that he was traumatised by the events of the last year since we captured a Galra commander and kept him captive on the ship, but none of us actually knew or had the nerve to talk with him about it," she started, making Ariela curious. "I wanted to thank you. I've noticed that he breaks down more often lately, but he is beginning to slowly get closer to the team. Bottling his feelings would have made him impossible to put together once he definitely broke," the princess finished, and Ariela shot her a wide smile._ _

__"I'm happy to help. Although I must tell you, if it hadn't been because Hunk asked me to check on him, we probably wouldn't be here right now. He really worries about the whole team," she explained to Allura, remembering her second night on the Castle._ _

__"Guys? I have eyes on the tribe, and they do not look happy," Pidge said over the intercom._ _

__The panther tugged at Ariela's mind and she let the bond tighten, their minds fusing and his eyes becoming hers, just in time to see tonnes of arrows lit on fire flying towards them. She pulled the levers and stepped on the treadle, making the panther shoot upwards._ _

__"How are we going to make it down there without them killing us?" Ariela asked as she started circling over the valley where a small town had been built out of everything they could get from the forest._ _

__"We can't communicate with them through technology, as they have none," Pidge warned._ _

__"Just land on the entry of the town. I think they will wait if we don't attack," Allura said, and the two paladins nodded, before slowly descending in the borders of the town._ _

__Ariela could see, through the panther's eyes, how tiny people ran towards the place they would be landing at an extraordinary speed. She slowly was able to recognise more and more details. They were all women, as Zover had explained, all dressing differently and armed with bows, arrows and knives._ _

__"We're lucky Lance wasn't allowed here," Pidge joked, as she slowly let the green lion come in contact with the ground, and turned it off. Ariela did the same thing, activating the force field just in case, and they waited in silence._ _

__A small battalion formed in front of the robots, the first line kneeling in one leg on the ground, arrows pointed towards them, waiting for an order. A woman in a dark brown one-piece made a gesture of her hand and the archers downed their bows._ _

__"This is our queue. Pidge, we have to go outside," Allura said, as she started walking towards the entrance._ _

__"You know what to do in case stuff goes down, right?" Ariela asked, as she stood up and prepared her bayard._ _

_Protect the princess, don't kill civilians if possible. I've got this_ Bagheera said, and the woman ran after Allura. 

__The small town was surrounded by ridiculously tall trees, mountains on the back and a river on the front, forest to the sides. The houses were generally small, made out of dark wood and decorated with rocks and precious stones._ _

__"We come in peace!" Allura exclaimed as she stepped out of the panther, with Ariela behind her. Her bayard had turned to a spear and her shield was activated, waiting for someone to do something. Her mind was laughing at the fact that she had actually heard an alien say that._ _

__The same woman that had commanded the archers to put down their bows stepped to the front._ _

__"Who are you and what are your intentions with my people?" she asked, and her voice was similar to the one Allura used when she had to discuss diplomatic stuff with important people._ _

__"I'm Allura, princess of Altea, and this are the paladins of Voltron," she said, as she started to step closer. When she noticed that no one made sign of moving, she told Ariela to put the force field down so they could talk to them without a barrier in between._ _

__The black and the green energy fields were down, and the warriors visibly relaxed when they noticed that the three strangers were women._ _

__"We are here because we want to discuss the opportunity of an alliance with your people," Allura kept saying, as she slowly neared the woman that seemed to be in charge._ _

__There was an exchange of looks, and Ariela noticed they were measuring each other, but Allura seemed to meet the woman's expectations because she smiled warmly and reached out to shake Allura's hand._ _

__"We had never seen female warriors out of our town," the woman said, the smile growing bigger when Ariela lowered her bayard and let her shield vanish. A few more women crowded around them, curiously looking at Allura's ears and even tugging at the paladin's uniforms. "I'm Ilayi, leader of this town, and she is my eldest daughter, Nallely, my second in command," Ilayi said, signalling one of the warriors that had neared them with a gesture of her hand._ _

__The woman stood straight when she heard her name, and got closer to the paladins, making Ariela's eyes go wide. In front of her, there was a six feet two Amazonian goddess, looking at her with lilac eyes that didn't share the softness of the colour. She had her black hair shaved on one side of her head, taking it all go to the other. She was wearing a red top and brown leather pants and Ariela was so gay._ _

__"Hello," Allura said with a smile, and the woman next to her swallowed hard as Nallely got nearer. "As I said before, I'm Allura. The paladin of the black panther is Ariela, and the paladin of the green lion is Pidge," she explained signalling each one with a gesture of her hand._ _

__"Why are you so tiny?" a bald warrior asked, lifting Pidge up as if she was a toddler, and she immediately started kicking around._ _

__"I might be short but I can still kick your ass!" she exclaimed, red with anger._ _

__"Pidge!" Allura called, but Ilayi just laughed it off._ _

__"I like her," the woman muttered, as she indicated the warrior to put the girl down._ _

__"Why are you interested in making an alliance with us?" Nallely asked, and Ariela had to hold herself back from purring at the smooth and strong voice._ _

__"We are fighting the Galra empire, and we should get all the help that we can get," Allura asked, omitting the part the included them having to move from their actual territory so the people they hated could explote it._ _

__"Those damned Galra," Nallely snarled, and it gave Ariela chills. "They have tried to invade Grigk at least five times in the past year, but they never managed, luckily," she told them._ _

__"I shall talk with you about this alliance offer. Meanwhile, why don't you and your sister show the paladins the town? After all, if they want to actually form an alliance, they will be staying here for a few days at least," Ilayi said, and Ariela exchanged a look with Allura._ _

__"We should let the guys know we won't be going back for a while," she told the princess._ _

__"I'll let them know," Pidge nodded, ignoring the fuss that was slowly starting to build up between the warriors. Suddenly, a little (in grigkeans standards) girl with short black hair and wearing a green dress emerged from the crowd._ _

__"Who are you?" she asked, looking down to Pidge._ _

__"This is my youngest, Sugey," Ilayi said, smiling at the girl. "Sugey, they are our guests. You and your sister will be showing them around, okay?" The girl nodded._ _

__"Why is she so small, mommy?" Sugey asked, signalling Pidge, that was about to lose her shit, making Ariela laugh out loud._ _


	16. [NOT UPDATED]

The town was definitely bigger once you were in it, and Ariela had been so wrong about the buildings being small (they had to feet in the Amazonian goddesses, of course), but she wasn't paying much attention anyways; Nallely was walking her around, explaining the function of the main building and adjusting data about their culture, but the woman was just lost in the grigkean's voice and her predator like moves. Pidge was the one taking mental notes of everything, and Ariela told herself she would ask the girl when they were alone about the main data.

"May I ask a question?" Pidge asked, as they walked past a nursery, where grigkean teens were taking care of cute little (not so little) babies.

"You may," Nallely answered, tangling her fingers together and looking at the smaller paladin with patient lilac eyes.

"If there are no men allowed here, how do you have children?" Pidge asked, and Ariela's ears perked, as she mentally slapped herself for not thinking about that. Sugey was the one that answered, twirling around in her green dress and making her ponytails spin around with her.

"There's a way a female can get pregnant with another female, but it only results in female babies. It involves collecting eggs from one and putting them through a process that makes them able to fertilise the other one," she explained.

"I have another question!" Ariela exclaimed, making the eyes fly to her. She shifted her helmet from one hand to the other. "Are you all lesbians?" Both Nallely and Sugey frowned deeply, looking at the woman as if she was speaking in another language.

"What is a lesbian?" Sugey asked, curiosity making her eyes shine, and Ariela was too tempted to answer "Me multiplied by two", but she choked it back.

"Oh, well. On Earth, the planet we come from," she started, signalling herself and Pidge. "We call lesbians to the women that like women instead of men," she explained, biting her cheek, as Nallely tilted her head and nodded in understanding.

"I get it. Well, we are mostly lesbians, but some of us like men and they leave the town to go back to the capital," she answered, eyes losing a little bit of the curious shine they had before as if she had remembered something. Sugey stepped in front of her sister, looking at the two paladins in turns.

"Are you lesbians?" she asked, and Pidge swallowed hard.

"Well, I'm like a half lesbian. I like both women and men," Ariela asked, smiling, as she looked to Pidge, but Sugey frowned.

"Is that possible? Can you like more than one type of person?" she kept asking, and Ariela concluded that, although she looked like a fifteen-year-old, she was nine tops.

"Well, yeah. You can like anyone you want," she answered. 

"Okay, that's enough talking about this subject. We still have to show our guests the donnybrook," Nallely said, cutting her sister when she was going to ask a question, with a harsh tone, before resuming her walk.

Sugey pouted but obeyed her sister, and Ariela and Pidge followed them behind, exchanging suspectful looks.

The donnybrook was in the forest, and it made Ariela feel like she was at home. The different tents, perfectly aligned on the ground, made corridors where the grigkeans walked, checking the different products that were sold in them, chatting with the sellers. It was too much like San Telmo's donnybrook, and it made Ariela's heart hurt a little bit.

"So, how does your economy work?" she asked to Nallely, as she looked around in a tent with different handmade jewelry pieces that looked just amazing.

"It's just barter. Our founder didn't want money to corrupt our lifestyle, and the truth is that we don't have that hard of a time to get things to exchange, so everyone is pretty happy with the system," she explained, as she looked at an ankle bracelet made out of silver. "Precious stones are something really common here, so it's the handiwork the thing that makes this stuff not being free."

"Oh, nice. I'd like to get some things for my friends. What could I exchange?" Ariela asked as she eyed some colourful necklaces.

"Well, you don't seem to have nothing on you. We can exchange everything, in fact. Clothes, food, furniture, but what is most valuable is thing's that come from an animal. Bones and skin."

Ariela cursed under her breath, as she had none of that, just as Allura walked in the tent with gloomy aura. The paladin immediately tensed and got near the princess, sensing that something hadn't gone quite right in her negotiation.

"What happened?" she asked Allura, once they were both away from Nallely, who eyed them carefully.

"I talked to Ilayi. The second she knew we had male paladins and that we had passed through the capital before coming here he stopped trusting me," Allura informed her.

"Really?" Ariela asked, and Allura shushed her.

"That's not the worst. She said that she wouldn't negotiate anything with me until we had gone through some sort of tests," the princess finishes, and the woman sighed as she rolled her eyes to another dimension.

"Are we going to keep this going?" Ariela asked. "Something gives me the feeling they won't be willing to move, us going through the tests or not," she added, and Allura bit her lower lip, as she debated with herself.

"Ugh, I wished Coran was here right now. I don't know, but I think we should try anyways. We don't have somewhere else to be, and grigkeans are powerful; having them as our allies would be a total win."

"We should look for Pidge and talk to Ilayi about this tests so that we can make the best decision," Ariela mumbled, and as if she had felt her named being spoken, Pidge angrily screamed in the distance.

"I'M NOT SMALL NOR CUTE! I'M POWERFUL AND I WILL BEAT YOU IF YOU KEEP CALLING ME THAT WEIRD NICKNAME!" She emerged from a tent a few feet away, with Sugey following closely behind.

"But you're just as small and fluffy as a _hassicky_!" the girl exclaimed throwing her arms to the sky in bliss, with a bright smile on her lips.

"Whatever option we choose, we'll have to keep track of Pidge so that she doesn't kill someone while we're here," Allura laughed, as the girl walked towards them with angry steps.

"What in the hell is a hassicky?" Ariela asked, and Nallely answered, having popped out from nowhere.

"It's a pink fluffy forest creature. They're really cute; my sister loves them," she said, smiling softly, and Ariela's heart skipped a beat.

"I might want to stay and face the tests," she whispered to Allura.

"Now I _can_ believe you're related to Lance," was the woman's answer, as she started to explain the whole situation to Pidge.

"There are three trials that the women who want to join the warriors have to go through. You'll have to pass them all to win my trust," Ilayi explained. They were at her house, surprisingly.

It was one of the biggest buildings in the town, made out of clear wood and clay bricks. There barely was furniture in the room they were sitting, but the floor was covered in soft and colourful pelts of different animals, making it soft and comfortable to sit on it. Sugey had been sent to her room at the back of their house, and Nallely and Ilayi were sitting in front of the two paladins and the princess.

"What are they?" Pidge asked.

"One is a values test, the other is a wrestling test, and the other is a stamina test," Nallely explained. "We can't explain you the procedure of the first, as it always changes, but the other two we can."

"In the wrestling, each of you will be facing a different warrior; the first to pin the other down to the floor ten seconds wins. In the third, you'll have to escape the oviti jaws; and, as no one is as strong as him to face it, the only answer is to run from it," Ilayi answered.

"What is the percentage of death chance?" Ariela asked jokingly, but her heart stopped when Nallely looked at her seriously and answered.

"Forty-five percent," without batting and eyelash.

"Oh, god. Isn't it too dangerous? I mean, Pidge is part of Voltron, and you are the only one capable of properly flying the Castle of Lions," the woman said, looking at her partners, and they frowned at her.

"You are part of Voltron too, Ariela," Allura said.

"Besides, we have gone in missions with higher percentages than that, and we counted with the guys' recklessness. Being us, how could we fail?" Pidge asked, shrugging, and Ilayi chuckled.

"Every time she speaks she makes me like her more," she admitted, before looking at the three of them separately. "So, paladins of Voltron, are you in?"

Ariela was going to ask Allura if they could take their time to discuss the options, but the princess was already answering before she could finish turning towards her.

"Of course."

# ***

There was not a single one of them that wasn't massively uncomfortable and unnerved, while they stayed at the castle. Hunk's sixth instinct had kicked in again, telling him that they should keep an eye on the grigkeans, as there just was something wrong about them. Coran, wise as ever, shared his opinion, letting Hunk know that grigkeans were known for being compulsive liars from the age ten.

Shiro's heart had sunk in his chest when he had spoken with his teammates in the black lion. He expected them to fix everything in a day and be back (his unconscious expected that, at least) and when Allura explained to him that they would be out for at least three days, he had realised that it meant three days without Ariela. The last night he had been without her hadn't gone really well.

Keith was already losing his mind, as every corner of the government house they were going to stay in he turned, there were guards following him with untrusting eyes. His Galra appearance had caused quite a fuss over the civilians, and only Zover had smiled at him and looked him in the eyes, but not even the professional liar was able to hide the disgust in his eyes. He wanted to beat the crap out of every single grigkean he found on the hallways.

The only one that was mildly okay was Lance. He was so worried about the girls that he didn't notice the tense environment around them.

Those three days would be the longest in their lives.

# ***

Allura was used to sleep in a huge and soft bed, full of cushions and blankets, so there was something weird about sleeping in pelts on the floor, but there was something about the thing that she quite liked. It was a new experience, and there was something about sleeping next to Pidge and Ariela that made her feel like she was a six-year-old again, faking to be asleep as Coran passed through her room to make sure she was sleeping. The light coming from the fire (nights in Girgk were cold) made the shadows dance, giving the whole place a fairy tale like air.

"You're still awake, princess," a voice said, making Allura hide under the pelts that worked as covers, ashamed that he had been caught looking at _her_ paladins with a warm smile.

She came out from her hiding spot, a blush creeping up her cheeks as she realised her childish behaviour, looking at Nallely with wide blue eyes.

"I am. Sleep doesn't seem able to find me," she smiled, as she sat in her place, and the grigkean took it as an invitation to get near her, walking as close as she could and sitting down on her heels, arms resting on her knees.

Nallely had changed to a plain white nightdress, and had her hair up in a ponytail, letting Allura notice both sides of her head were shaved. It gave her a wild air that she liked a lot, made her actually powerful. That was not her situation, as her fluffy white her only made her look like a weakling that couldn't be taken seriously. The princess had seen those thoughts behind Zover's magenta eyes, while he spoke about alliances.

"She has some ugly bruises," Nallely pointed out.

Ariela was lying on her back, a leg over Pidge's stomach (which would have made the girl mad the next morning, if it wasn't because she had her hand on the woman's neck), and the borrowed marvel t-shirt that was too big for her lifted and sliding down her shoulders, allowing them all to see an ugly bruise on her stomach and the finger marks on her shoulders that were turning purple.

Allura had eavesdropped on Ariela's conversation with Lance about what had happened the other night with Shiro, and she had been extremely grateful for the patience she was showing to the black paladin.

"Did a man do that to her? Becuase the marks are too big to be yours," Nallely kept asking, as a little spark of anger started on her lilac eyes.

"Yes, it was one of our teammates, but it's not what you think," Allura hurried to answer.

"She doesn't look like the type that would let a guy step over her," the grigkean said, eyes still on Ariela's bruises, before turning towards Allura. "What is it then?" The altean looked away before answering.

"He was held prisoner by the Galra for a long time, and he has sequels. Before she arrived he barely slept due to his nightmares, but she somehow manages to calm him down and make him sleep. Last night he had an awful nightmare and unwillingly punched her in his sleep," Allura explained, noticing how Nallely awkwardly shifted in the place where she had sat in front of the two paladins.

"I still don't like it. Why would she put herself in danger for him?" she asked, frowning. Allura chuckled.

"Humans are quite..., selfless sometimes. She is all in for helping others and neglecting herself," she explained, as she pulled a lock of dark brown hair away from Ariela's face, and the woman wrinkled her nose.

"Well, she looks like the type. A pure sapphire," Nallely said, tilting her head.

"A sapphire?" Allura asked, looking at the woman with a slight frown.

"My people identify personality to precious stones. Sapphires are the stones of communication, intuition, peace, happiness, comprehension and preach," she calmly explained.

"Oh. What stone am I?" Allura asked excitedly, and Nallely fixated her sight on the wooden floor.

"A ruby. It is the protector against bad things and bad luck," she answered, and if it wasn't because of the bad lighting, Allura would have caught the blush creeping on her cheeks.

An extended silence followed and all the princess could do to not feel uncomfortable was put her attention on the crippling of the flames. She wondered if Nallely would go back to sleep sometime, but as the woman didn't give a sign of doing so, she opted to revive the conversation.

"Why did you separate from the rest of Grigk?" she asked, and Nallely's lilac eyes turned to her, bright with something she didn't recognise.

"We didn't. Our tribe was formed hundreds of years ago. But we know it was because men were mistreating their women a lot, and our right to be a member of the army had been ripped from us. Many didn't mind, but those who worked as soldiers were mad with anger. And the same-sex couples were prohibited also," she told Allura, eyes sad at the thought.

"Same-sex couples were something normal?" she asked. It certainly wasn't in Altea.

"Yes. As we are capable of reproduction no matter what, you could be with whoever you wanted, but the popular belief that there should be a woman and a man in every couple to keep it balanced in every aspect was born in that time. When the new director was chosen, he changed everything in favour of those beliefs, and ruined many lives," Nallely answered. "That was one of the main reasons my people came here."

"That sound's horrible," Allura consented.

"What is it like? Altea?" Nallely asked, and Allura knew it was normal to ask in return about her native planet, but that didn't avoid the sharp pain in her heart and the tears prickling at her eyes.

"The Galra destroyed it ten thousand years ago, so it's nothing more than ash right now, but it used to be beautiful. The sights, the festivals, the Castle was always open to the town's people to visit and there were parties all the time," Allura started, a lone tear running down her cheek.

"I'm sorry for your loss," the woman told, sounding uncomfortable.

"Don't worry. But there's nothing I can do about it and it kind of works as motivation to bring the Galra empire down as soon as possible. I don't want other planets to suffer the same fate that mine did," she replied, giving Nallely a broken smile.

"You are strong, princess Allura. I really like that," she said, returning the smile.

"Thank you. I really like you too," Allura replied, and Nallely lowered her face again, before standing up.

"I should go back to my bedroom and let you sleep. Your first trial is tomorrow and mum will kill me if she knows I kept you awake," she said, before nodding respectfully towards the woman. "Good night, princess," she said before she started walking away.

"You can call me just Allura, you know?" she laughed, and Nallely stopped, before turning towards her.

"Good night, Allura, then."

"Sweet dreams, Nallely," she nodded, watching the woman go, before lying down on the pelts again and closing her eyes, suddenly feeling more tired and willing to sleep than before.

# ***

Ariela had been blindfolded a few times before (the context wasn't necessary to explain), but she had been with people she trusted, knowing that with a simple word coming out off her mouth everything would immediately stop and she could quit at any moment. She really understood Shiro's nervousness now.

This, she thought as she was guided by a grigkean warrior through the forest, was nothing like that. First, she was in danger, that was something sure, as they had had to stop three times because one of the warriors had spotted a wild and dangerous animal in the foliage. Second, the only people she truly trusted there were blindfolded too, so she felt unsafe. And third, someone had told her that there were spiders in that forest, and that had made her more terrified than the trial itself had.

"We have arrived. Don't take your blindfold off yet," Ilayi said, and Ariela gulped hard. "We will leave you alone and you'll have to find your way back to the town alone. You'll have to wait a whole minute before tacking your blindfold off," she continued, but Pidge cut her off.

"Will you know if we take them off before?" she asked, and Ariela knew she was raising her hand as if she was in a classroom.

"We will let you figure that answer out," a warrior they didn't know answered in a smug tone, making the others chuckle.

"Silence," Ilayi said, and it was dead quiet. "As I said, you'll have to wait a minute to remove the blindfolds, and you'll have one hour to make it back to the town."

Before Ariela could ask how they would know an hour had passed, the warrior that had guided her was whispering a "Good luck" full of sentiment and she was gone.

"Hello?" Pidge asked, and no one answered.

"Okay, so we should wait for sixty ticks, right?" Allura asked, before counting in whispers.

"What the fudge is a tick?" Ariela asked.

"It's the Altean word for seconds," Pidge answered.

They waited in silence for Allura to finish counting, and once she did, they removed their blindfolds. The three of them had been given traditional training clothes and weapons. The three of them were in brown leather pants, and shirts made of a strong black material. Each one had two knives and that was it.

"Okay. So, where should we walk towards to?" Ariela asked, looking around and everything seeming the exact same thing to her. She felt as if she was floating in the middle of the ocean, disorientated and with no way to know where to swim.

"Well, you were the last one, so you are the one that's closer to the place we came from," Pidge deduced, signalling the space behind the panther's pilot. "I think we should just walk in a straight line in that direction," she finished.

"I'm not going to deny that this idea is the only one we've got, so I say we give it a chance," Allura said, shrugging, and they all turned around and started walking.

They walked for what felt like hours to the paladins, but Allura informed them that it had just been fifteen minutes, advancing through the humid, foggy and cold environment of the forest, evading roots, bushes and low branches like a minor obstacle, until they heard it.

Pidge was barely able to see her own feet when they hear a distant howl, followed by many others.

"What was that?" she asked, immediately turning around. Ariela retreated and put herself in between her and the path they had already walked, _sniffing_ the air and her ears moving slightly towards the direction of the sound.

"I don't know what it is exactly, but it sounds like a pack of something big and it smells like acid," she informed, giving a step back. "Whatever they are they're fast, so I suggest we start running like now," she added, before grabbing Pidges hand and fucking starting to sprint, following the direction they had set themselves.

They run for three minutes before the fog got too dense to be able to see what was in front of them, the sound of the animals getting closer every second passing, just as Pidge's heart hammered faster against her chest.

She crashed against something, and Ariela accidentally let go of her hand. There was screaming and calling out for each other, but Pidge set off running again when she realised it was to no avail to keep searching for her teammate.

The girl run like her life depended on it (and, to her, it did) noticing glad how the fog started to dissipate as she neared the limit of the forest. She could see the valley meters in front of her, but there was a howl close to her, and then a scream.

"PIDGE!" a voice filled with pain shouted, making her stop in her tracks and turn around.

"ALLURA?" she asked, watching in between the dense fog that was behind her.

"PIDGE! PLEASE HELP ME! THEY'RE COMING AND MY FEET GOT TANGLED IN SOMETHING!" Allura was practically crying in desperation, and Keith didn't even shoot a look over her shoulder to look at the valley, before jumping into the fog again.

"WHERE ARE YOU, ALLURA?" she called out, as she advanced as slowly as she could to not stumble upon anything at to pay attention to the woman's voice.

"I'M HERE, PIDGE! PLEASE HURRY!" the princess responded, and Pidge advanced faster, more certain of the woman's position. Then she heard howls and growls, followed by a scream that tore through her ears.

"ALLURA!" she shouted, before picking up the running pace again, noticing how the fog was starting to dissipate too, the animal noises becoming louder and scarier, but she forced herself to run even faster.

She jumped over a tree root and crashed against a body, making the person back away a little at the impact, but they were able to catch themselves before actually falling to the ground.

"What the...?" Pidge asked, looking up and recognising the bald warrior that had picked her up the day before and asked why she was so tiny.

"Congrats, paladin. You made it through the first trial," the woman smiled at her brightly.

"What? Where's Allura?"

"I don't really know, but I can assure you she's fine," the warrior smiled. "C'mon, let's get you to the village," she said, slamming a strong hand on Pidge's back and almost tipping her over.

When they made it to the village, Ariela and Allura were already waiting there, the princess looking proud of herself and the woman fidgeting, as she tried to look into the forest, probably looking for Pidge.

"Why are they taking so long?" she asked.

"I'm right here!" Pidge exclaimed, before running towards them again. "Allura, I heard you calling for me!" she said to the princess, and she smiled.

"It was the test, Pidge, seeing if we would go back to save our partners or not," Allura explained to her, Nallely smiling proudly behind her.

"Which you could have done in other way because I almost nail a knife in your head," Ariela added, pointing a finger in Ilayis direction, making the woman laugh nervously.

"I didn't know you could throw knives. It's a really rare ability here," she justified herself, and Ariela turned to Pidge, putting her hands on the girl's shoulders and looking for any sign of damage.

"It scared the crap out of me when I heard you scream," Ariela said, and Pidge frowned.

"I didn't scream." Ariela copied her frown.

"It was your exact same voice," she said before they both turned towards the grigkeans.

"We can imitate voices to the perfection," Nallely explained, using Sugey's voice, and the three teammates opened their eyes widely.

"Wow."


	17. [NOT UPDATED]

The trial had taken them just an hour, and when they thought they could relax, the foreign trio was told that, as the next day they would have to fight a warrior each, they should at least try to get a little bit accustomed to the way grigkeans fought instead of resting from the little nothing that had been the first trial.

And that's how they met the arena, accompanied by Nalleny, Erandi (the bald warrior) and Yaretzi (a cutie-pie they had just met, with waist long hair being held back by a messy half up half down bun and a sweet smile always on her face). It was near the mountains, a place where they had dug a plain floor and grades on the ground. 

" _Alto laburo le pusieron a este lugar_ ," Ariela said, after whistling, and everyone frowned, not knowing what she had said, as she lowered the grades and stepped into the arena, already feeling like someone was going to pop up from nowhere and fight her to death.

"We can fight among ourselves at the beginning, for you to have a look before practising," Yaretzi said, with her smile still present, behind Ariela. The woman turned to her, wondering how the fuck she had made it down so fast.

"That would be really nice. Thank you," Allura said, as Nallely helped her down the last step, being it taller than the rest (although the princess didn't need it, and it seemed like the grigkean warrior knew).

Erandi was suddenly crushing her body against Yaretzi, making her fall violently to the ground with a gasp. The bald woman laughed out loud, and her opponent's smile faded away, to give place to an angered grimace. She put all of her weight in her forearms and kicked the other woman in the stomach, breath escaping her lungs as she fell on her ass.

It turned into a mud-fight, those that appeared in cliché teenagers movie. They played dirty, and there were really few times where there was space in between them. It didn't look much like fighting, but wrestling. The trio immediately noticed that they weren't good at evading, and took mental note of it, to use to their favour the nex day.

Surprisingly, Yaretzi won. Ariela would have bet all of her money on Erandi, but she ended up pinned under the other woman's weight, face pressed against the earth as Yaretzi shook with laughter, listening to the muffled curses coming from her opponent.

"Yare, it's over, let her go," Nallely sighed, and the aforementioned rolled off Erandi, still laughing lowly, and helped her stand up. "Good. As Yaretzi is our lightest weight she'll be PIdge's oponent. Who should get the heaviest?"

Ariela was going to give a step forward, but Allura raised a hand slowly, as if it wasn't that big of a deal. The human raised her eyebrows, analysing the woman's body again, and reasuring herself that there was not much muscle there.

"She lifted Shiro in the air and threw him across the air twelve feet," Pidge said, noticing Airela's disbilief.

"You did? Shiro's a fudging machine!" Ariela exclaimed, looking at the princess with wide eyes. Allura shrugged.

"Then the princess gets Erandi. Ariela, you with me," Nallely said, signlaing a place of the arena and started her walk towards there.

Depending on the tactic, the fights were pretty unbalanced, at least in between humans and grigkeans. When the warriors caught Pidge or Ariela, they would beaten to practical death unless they managed (somehow) to escape. Now, if they didn't manage to hold them down, the punches and kicks would come from everywhere, and the grigkeans would be lucky to evade them. Ariela was sighind in her mind, thinking how big of a waste it was having those bodies and not teaching them more agile fight styles.

Ariela managed to pin down Nallely by the second round. Pidge struggled, and she wasn't able to pin Yaretzi down in none of the five rounds they alll faught.

Allura won every damned time, as she counted with the same strength and similar size to the other species and the fighting knowledge from Altea. Her oponent had muttered it had been beginners luck after the first time her back had been pressed against the ground, but by the third she was already waring a frown and thin lips on her face, making it hard for Allura to choke back the grin she wanted to stretch her lips into.

They had lunch, they rested, practised five more rounds, ate dinner, stayed in the nursery helping the teens take care of the babies as all the adult grigkeans attended a weekly meeting they had to go over..., stuff and gone to sleep.

Ariela's body was aching all over, and she hadn't noticed how much she had goten used to the healing pods until she needed them and they weren't there. It hurt to just lay down on the pelts Ilayi and Sugey had set for them in the living room of their house. The mere thought of having to go over the fight again the next day made her want to sob, taking her sleep away.

The whole town was dead quiet, the only sound was the crippling of the fire and her teammates breathing, along with their heartbeats. Allura's was slow and steady, but Pidge's was a little bit fast, her scent giving away the fact that she was feeling anxious. Ariela thought she was having some kind of bad dream when she cursed and furiously shifted around.

"Hey, Pidge. Is everything okay?" the woman asked, and the girl lifted her eyes to hers, face getting a little bit pale.

"Ariela, you're awake," she gasped, making the woman look at her with narrowed eyes. What was that little person hiding? "I'm okay. Don't worry."

"Is it tomorrow's trial? Because if it's that, then we'll figure something out, don't worry," Ariela assured her, and Pidge bit her cheek, looking down to the wooden floor.

"It isn't that what worries me," she whispered, a blush creeping on her cheeks.

"Then what is it?" she asked, making Pidge look around nervously to check that there was no one listening to their conversation, as she debated with herself whether she should spit it out or keep her mouth shut. 

"How old were you when you knew you were bi?" she asked, biting her lip and fidgeting with the bright blue pelt that covered her body. Ariela's eyebrows rose up in surprise, but she started to recall the age she had been when she had figured out (really scared about it and hating it) her sexuality.

"I was in between thirteen and fourteen," she answered slowly a few seconds later. Pidge's eyes seemed to sink. "Why is that important?"

"I..." Pidge started, before taking a deep and shaky breath to calm her nervous tone down. "I'm fourteen and I have never had the hots for anyone. And I'm in an age where I'm supposed to be horny all the time, but I just don't find anyone attractive," she spoke quickly as if she was afraid someone was going to catch her midsentence. Her eyebrows knitted at the woman's wide eyes in surprise.

"Wait, what?" she asked, trying not to scream, and Pidge hunched. "You're fourteen?" Ariela asked in a whisper as if it was illegal to be that age, and the girl looked at her with a frown.

"Yeah, didn't you know?"

"No," Ariela shook her head violently. "I thought you were Lance's age, as he had told me you were his partner at the Garrison. Oh, my god, you are fourteen!" she replied, making Pidge frown even harder.

"Didn't Lance tell you why I'm here?" she asked.

"I think it's evident Lance didn't feel like telling me more than half of the story," Ariela said through gritted teeth angrily. "Next time I see him I'll have his ass, " she started, before gasping and covering her mouth. "I'm sorry." Pidge snorted.

"Dude, it's okay. I curse more than you do," she said. "But, going back to what I was saying..." Ariela's eyes focused on her face again and she smiled.

"Yeah, right. So?" she asked.

"Well, isn't it weird? Could it be there's something wrong with my body?" she inquired, and Ariela wrinkled her nose as if the idea had a bad smell.

"Nah, man. You might just be asexual or demisexual," she said, before shrugging it off.

"What?"

"Asexual means that you don't experiment sexual attraction at all, and demisexual means that you can experience sexual attraction only if you have a really strong bond with a person," the woman calmly explained to her.

"And..., is it bad?" Pidge asked, gripping the pelt tightly.

"No, it's just a sexuality. Just like I'm bi or, I don't know, Shiro is straight... I think," Ariela answered quickly, not wanting the girl to stick with that thought.

"Oh. Okay. And..., can it be that I have never fallen in love but I'm not a sociopath?"

"Pidge, honey, listen. You are really pretty and smart, so you must have really high standards for someone that is your age," the woman started, with a soft smile, putting a hand on the girl's arm. "And if you don't find anyone to fall in love with it's normal. Now, if time goes by and you don't ever fall in love, it's okay too. There are other types of love out there to enjoy."

"Yeah, it sounds lovely but what if I die alone? What if I decide to have children when I'm older and I can't because I'm like this?" she kept asking, and there were a few tears welling in her eyes as she spoke. Ariela's face turned serious.

"Pidge, as long as we are alive, you won't die alone, I can promise you that. And there's also your family. Beside's if you want to have children, there's this magic thing called adoption or even insemination," she replied, looking at the girl's eyes.

"You promise?"

Ariela wanted to kill herself for not noticing how young Pidge was, but then she remembered how the girl had never let herself be mildly vulnerable in front of anyone, always acting like an immature grown up with her unlimited sass and salty personality. The scared look in the girl's eyes reminded her both of her and Lance when they were her age: having made a new discovery about themselves, regretting it and hating themselves for the way they were. Was there something wrong with them? Why couldn't they be normal? But it was the fear, overall. Not knowing how people would take it, how many of the ones you loved would turn their back on you, if there were going to be new limits in your life just because of who you liked or didn't like. It was the uncertainty of something new and kind of rejected by the society.

"I pinky promise," Ariela said, letting her hand go of Pidge's arm and holding her pinky finger out for her. And although the woman expected her to roll her eyes until there was nothing more than white, Pidge smiled and took her hand out from her pelt cocoon, tangling it with hers.

"You have to give me your other pinky because you're ambidextrous," Pidge deadpanned, and Ariela laughed.

"Does this mean that you will cut both of my pinkies off if I don't keep my promise?" she asked, as she held the other one out.

"You will be dead before me if you don't keep your promise, so it isn't like you are going to need them," the girl chuckled, before sniffing slightly.

"Then I promise again."

# ***

They were waiting for their food to arrive, sitting uncomfortably at the kitchen's table with the staff. No one spoke nor tried to actually start a conversation. The four male paladins and the royal adviser were in complete silence, some of them fidgeting with their hands hidden under the table, as they watched how the food started to arrive.

A grigkean sat beside Keith received his food, the smell invading the paladin's nostrils and making him hum. He hated this people to death, yes, but their food was delicious and he was starving as if he hadn't eaten in days. Lately, he had been eating more than usual.

And then their food arrived, and the smell of it reached his nose too, smelling something different coming from the mashed something that was the side of some animal's meat.

He grabbed Coran's hand, stopping the man from taking a fork with meat and the thing that didn't smell good to his mouth, and calling everybody's attention.

He sniffed a little bit, paying close attention to the smell, noticing how it was something sweet that made him relax a little bit. He took the tiniest bit of the thing in his fork and licked a little bit, his sensitive tongue tingling.

"Keith, what's wrong?" Shiro asked, looking at him with a deep frown.

"I need to talk to all of you, now," he said, standing up and leaving the kitchen, his teammates hurried steps following close behind him. The door closed behind Hunk, but he was still able to hear how curious grigkean voices started speaking quietly in between them.

"What happened?" Lance asked, copying Shiro's frown, as he crossed his arms over his chest.

"I think they put something in our food," Keith told them in a whisper, and all of their eyes opened widely.

"What?" Hunk asked, but he spoke again before Keith could repeat himself. "How did you notice?"

"It smelt different than the other's food, and when I tasted a little bit it made my tongue tingle, so I think is some kind of morphine," he answered, looking around to catch everyone's reaction.

"But why would they want to drug us?" Shiro asked.

"Maybe they just wanted to drug Keith. Maybe they don't trust him because he's half Galra," Hunk answered, and Keith was going to feel bad about the comment when he noticed how the technician's voice made it look like that was something absurd and outrageous.

"I don't think it's worth taking the risk. I don't know why they would want to drug us all, but it definitely sounds like something grigkeans would do," Coran mumbled, gripping his chin as he thought about the situation.

"Then what should we do? Escape?" Lance asked, but the adviser shook his head.

"No, we might be overreacting, and the alliance with this people is really important. Besides, Pidge, Ariela and Allura are still with the tribe. I say we excuse ourselves, say that we are not hungry and go back to out bedrooms," he said.

"We better keep an eye open, just in case," Shiro said, taking his weight off the wall he had been leaning in. "I definitely don't trust this people."

# ***

They were woken up and given breakfast and some time to digest it before the fight. As their bodies hurt like hell from the day before, Ilayi had given them something that was like a transparent gel to put on the areas it hurt. Miraculously, the pain was away the moment the thing touched their skin.

"What if I don't make it?" Pidge asked, stopping her pacing around the house.

"Hm?" Allura asked, sitting straight and looking at the girl.

"Yesterday I wasn't even close to beating Yaretzi. What makes you think it'll be different today? Will I have to re-do the whole thing or I just end up eliminated forever? If I do, will they let you keep going or all our plans are thrown into the trash because of me?" she started asking, and Ariela wondered if she always started panicking like this before something important.

"Don't worry, Pidge. I'm sure they'll take into account the fact that you are like three-fourths of their height and that you don't have even half their strength," Allura said, with a warm smile, but Pidge just blinked at her.

"What she means is that you don't have good chances of winning, but you are going to do it anyways and they'll probably really value your courage at the time of making a decision," Ariela said, feeling like she had to do something to cheer the girl up.

"You think so?" Pidge asked. Allura nodded.

"We do," she said, her smile growing bigger.

"Are you ready, paladins?" Sugey asked, sticking her head into the living room.

_Beat the glory out of them, kiddo_ Bagheera said in her mind, making the woman smile.

When they arrived, the grades of the arena where already filled with the women of the tribe, sometimes roaring at the speech Ilayi was giving about bravery and skill and allies and stuff Ariela didn't quite catch over the screams, the nerves and the chatter of the grigkean teens that were painting their faces with war paintings.

"Now we greet princess Allura, from Altea, paladin of Voltron and pilot of the green lion, Pidge Holt from Earth, and paladin and pilot of the black panther, from Malteia," Ilayi screamed, signalling to the place they were standing. Ariela looked at her teammates with wide eyes.

"I'm not from Malteia. Why did she say I'm malteian?" she asked.

"Oh, we're sorry. we just assumed you were because the princess told us about your malteian blood," one of the teens said.

"We were really excited to know that there were still malteians out there. They're one of the best warrior races of the universe, after the Galra and the Grigkeans," the other added.

"So you better kick Nallely's ass, got it?" Pidge told the woman, making her laugh.

The trio parted, each of them walking towards they pre-assigned opponent and greeting them, waiting for Ilayi to give the signal to start. Said signal was a "Good luck", and after it was said, the grigkeans jumped towards them.

It was just like the day before, but Ariela noticed that Nallely was fighting in a more aggressive way, even aiming to break bones or completely knock the other out with her punches, making the human get a little bit scared, but she still managed to evade and land punches herself, managing to bring Nallely to the ground, but having to separate from her before the woman tried to choke her with her thighs.

The public watched in silence, excepting for some spontaneous exclamations when someone did an amazing move, not wanting to distract the fighters from their activity. And Ariela was really glad because the adrenaline was slowly starting to affect her performance, not in a bad or good way, just making it different.

Midway through the fight, she started relying more on her other senses, sight just becoming just one more, as she heard the woman's heartbeat and started to recognise subtle patterns that gave off what might be her next attack, just as her smell. She felt Nallely's muscles start to tremble under her grip once she managed to grab her, before being shaken away, letting her know that the woman was starting to get tired. And also, that part of her that had awoken with her genes, was starting to take over her mind bit by bit, making her own attacks more animalistic, the permanent growl she made when she practised appearing and unconsciously showing her fangs at her opponent, just as her claws.

Allura was the first one to win the fight, after fifteen minutes of wrestling. Five minutes later, when exhaustion was starting to show, Ariela had just separated from Nallely (who had almost won the fight, but the other woman had managed to squirm from her grip at the last second) when she heard Pidge cry out in pain, making her attention drive towards her.

She saw the green paladin lying on the ground, gripping her ankle as she huffed, trying not to cry because of the pain. Yaretzi looked at her without moving a muscle, chest heaving, as she didn't know if she should keep going or stop. The grigkean shot a look to her leader, and when the woman nodded, she gulped and started advancing towards Pidge.

"What? No! She probably sprained her ankle!" Ariela screamed, looking at Ilayi, just as Nallely's heartbeat got too near and she evaded the woman's body crushing int hers just by millimetres. "Allura, do something!" she shouted, as she focused her attention in her opponent again, decided on winning this and going to check on Pidge.

There was screaming and Erandi suddenly appeared flying towards them, falling in front of Nallely and making her fall face to the floor. Ariela took the chance, ignoring the bald warrior getting up and running off as she threw her body over the woman's and effectively catching her in a position that pinned her to the ground, without no option of moving. It was staying still or having Ariela break her arm. Jesus, was she familiar with that movement she thought, as she held Nallely down to the floor, with a leg over the woman's neck and the other over her chest, as she held her arm tightly and waited for any movement that gave her an excuse to raise her hips and break the arm.

The countdown started on the grades, and the second the women shouted "zero", Ariela let go of Nallely, and run towards where she had last seen Pidge. And she was still there, only Allura was dealing (read: struggling) with both Yaretzi and Erandi.

"Are you okay, Pidge?" she asked the second she was on her knees beside the crying girl.

"Yeah, I just sprained my ankle really bad. Yare pushed me and I gave a wrong step," she explained.

"Okay, don't worry. We've got this for you," Ariela nodded, before standing up again and going to back up Allura.

They ended up winning over the grigkeans, as Allura held Erandi back, Ariela pinned Yaretzi. There was screaming, booing, clapping and steps running towards them. Suddenly, Ilayi's furious face was resting over Ariela's, who was still lying on the ground, panting and wishing she would just pass out.

"Who ever said you could help your friend with her opponent?" the woman asked her through gritted teeth.

"She sprained her ankle! As if being small and weaker wasn't enough, now she couldn't move!" Ariela exclaimed, making the grigkean raise her eyebrows.

"In a real fight she would have perished," the woman spat, but it was Allura who answered.

"No, because in a real fight we would still be by her side. And, believe me, if you had given my paladin a weapon, your warrior wouldn't be alive," the princess told the leader, as she picked Pidge up bridal style, using her royal tone.

There was a silent duel, the two of them looking into the others eyes with fierce, trying to intimidate the other and make them back down. Allura won again.

"Fine. We'll count it as if you've passed it, but you will have a lot of trouble tomorrow, running from the oviti," Ilayi said, and with that, she was gone, leaving them in the arena, with their opponents getting near.

"Don't worry. We all know she respects the decision you made, it's just that she can't believe you dared to defy her rules," Yaretzi smiled at them sweetly.

"Whatever," Allura breathed out, before starting to walk. "Let's get you checked up," she said to Pidge.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alto laburo le pusieron a este lugar: They worked really hard in this place.
> 
> I can't believe I've already published the fifteenth chapter! I'm so excited with this fic all I do in my free time is write it, haha.  
> For those who are curious, the movement Ariela does to pin Nallely down is in this video, by the minute 3:30, I think.  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1B1H5-F50c4
> 
> Don't forget to leave kudos if you're liking it :D


	18. [NOT UPDATED]

"What are we going to do?" As if they weren't thinking about that already, Pidge asked, eyes fixated on the floor while Sugey made the bandage on her ankle. Just as Ariela had supposed, she had sprained it and probably a grade three, so Pidge wouldn't be able to step with her right foot until they got her into a healing pod for a few ours. But that wasn't going to happen until they went back to the Castle of Lions, thing that would happen after they completed the third trial, which involved running from some sort of killer animal.

Running.

"I can carry you on my back. It will make our moves clumsier and slower, but it's not impossible," Allura said, from the place she was sitting on the low step that separated the living room from the entrance of the house, rubbing her face. She was really tired and her body hurt all over.

"I got you an image of the oviti," Nallely announced, before even appearing from behind the wall, as she came back from her book. In her hands, she was carrying a huge book, thick and bound in red leather, opened to a specific page. She had several bandages over her body too, on the places Ariela had scratched and bitten to get away from her grip.

She passed the book to Allura, and Ariela got up from the place she was sitting on the floor to look. Her eyes met a really detailed drawing of a creature that looked like a hellhound, only it had sharp bones in its loin, red eyes and didn't have fur.

"We have three of this locked down and trained to attack the person we want, they're the ones we use for the third trial. We used to have four, but he reached the warrior and she managed to kill it before it killed her," Nallely answered.

"Did she have to re-do the trial?" Pidge asked, and Nallely shook her head slowly.

"No, she won, but the chances of winning against and oviti are one in fifty. We are fast and good climbers, so not many have died doing the trial," she explained. "Don't let this get into your head. If you can run, run. There's no way you're winning a fight against it, especially if you have a weak point."

"What's our weak point?" Allura asked, and the grigkean's eyes slowly turned to Pidge. 

"We got it, I'm the weak point. Fuck off," the girl said, letting her head drop in her hands, at the same time Sugey got up from the floor, having finished her duty.

"I don't know if we would actually need to get close to it to kill it," Ariela mumbled really low, only Nallely and Allura managed to hear her. "How good are this thing's reflexes?"

"Good. Not enough to evade an arrow, but you're only allowed to carry a knife each," Nallely answered, and Ariela turned to her with a half grin on her mouth.

Adrian was Lance's second brother. He was twenty-four, so when Ariela was sixteen, he was eighteen. There had been this massive party at the McClain's house, family and friends invited, and (surprisingly) there was alcohol "for the adults". Nick, a friend of Adrian, had gone up to the bedrooms, where Ariela had been looking for Adrian's gift in the guest's room and... Well. He was strong (baseball team's star) and she was shocked, so he moved on pretty fast, but the second Ariela's brain caught up with the situation, she took advantage of the drunk guy's poor stability and had broken his arm. There was a lot of screaming and crying, and although she had thought Adrian and his parents would be mad at her, they had to hold the birthday boy back from beating the life out of his friend for touching his _little sister_.

Adrian felt awful after that, thinking the girl would hate him because he had invited that fiasco of a person, but she had explained that he had had nothing to do with it. But, as he still felt guilty, he insisted in taking self-defense lessons with her. They signed up, and from there they went to judo, and from there she went to kickboxing classes, but they still practised together from time to time.

When the girl started enjoying fighting a lot and took up a like towards everything that was weapons and fighting techniques, Alec (Lance's father) taught her how to shoot a gun and Idania (Lance's mother) had taught her how to throw knives, something that her father had taught her when she still lived in Cuba while being a teenager, just for fun. Endless afternoons had been spent in the McClain's backyard, shooting down tins with Lance, or taking them down knives with Idania, in a match in which the winner got away from doing the washing up.

To sum up, Ariela had quite of a good aim.

"I just walked by the cage to check the oviti out and I almost shat my pants," Pidge announced, making Ariela snort, as she took her eyes out of Yaretzi for a second to look at the girl clinging to Erandi's back, who had offered herself to carry her around so Pidge didn't go into an energyy accumulation state and made everything blow up. "How's practise going?"

As an answer, Ariela turned, aimed and threw the knife with all of her might. It went through the wood tray Yaretzi had been swinging, burying to the hilt, but not quite in the centre.

"I just can't seem to get the centre," the woman complained, groaning, as she balanced another knife between her fingers.

"You get the middle or not, I don't think the oviti will survive having fifteen centimetres of this bad boy buried it it's skull," Sugey said, popping from thin air, and handing Ariela a knife that made the woman's jaw drop.

The handle was made out of some thick wood she couldn't recognise, it probably didn't exist on Earth, and the blade was made out from some kind of precious stone that let light go through its light-blue-almost-white surface and gave an amber halo.

"It's beautiful," the woman said, feeling the weight of the weapon in her hand and testing its balance. It was perfect.

"I made it out of crystal river gem and severa wood. I was going to give it to Nallely on her birthday, but she's been really mean to me lately and she doesn't deserve it. Besides, I discovered mum is already going to give her one made out of marble, and I can't compete with that," the girl explained as if it was nothing, making Ariela's jaw drop even lower.

"You're giving it to me?" she asked Sugey, and she made a face that looked too much like Pidge's.

"No, I'm asking you to give it to the oviti for me when you see him."

"Heh, she picked that up from me," Pidge exclaimed proudly, still clinging to Erandi's back. "Throw it! Throw it! Throw it!" she started to chant, and almost everyone followed. Yaretzi looked at Ariela with a grin and started to swing the tray again.

The woman breathed deeply before aiming and throwing the knife. It buried to the hilt too, a few centimetres closer to the centre.

"That knife is amazing, Sugey. How did you make it?" she asked, as Yare pulled the knife out of its place, making a weird sound because of the serrated blade. The girl just shrugged at the question.

"Paladins, the trial will start in ten minutes. Nallely, would you show them where they have to go?" an unknown grigkean stated, and the warrior nodded, before looking at the trio.

"Are you ready?"

"To the place where the ugly dog is, my official carrier," Pidge said with a general like tone, and Erandi laughed, before starting the walk to the place where they had come from a few minutes ago.

The oviti had an ashy grey skin that segregated some kind of transparent slime that stank already for normal noses, but it was making Ariela want to cut her nose off with the knife Sugey had given her. It growled at them and barked, sounding like it came from another dimension, making the woman's hair stand and hiss at the dog, showing it her fangs. It only made it bark louder.

"You'll have fifteen minutes of advantage, then we will let the oviti go. You have to make it to that valley uphill, where the rest of the warriors will be waiting. Once you're there, you're safe," the unknown grigkean explained to them, as Erandi passed Pidge to Allura.

"Good luck," Nallely wished them.

"Run."

Ariela had never wished to be Usain Bolt harder in her life, not even when she was running from some guys that had tried to mug her in Constitusión a few months earlier, almost getting run over because she was paying more attention to how close the muggers were instead of the street lights.

She knew that if it wasn't because she had to carry Pidge, Allura would be faster than her, but in that moment they were running side by side, the girl on the princess' back warning them about obstacles and looking over her shoulder to check on the oviti, although they hadn't run for more than five minutes. But once the fifteen minutes headstart were over and the animal was let loose, all hell broke free.

They noticed the animal was finally running after them because it let a long and loud howl that sounded too much to those the actual hounds gave before starting to chase a prey while hunting. The steps of the two women became faster, just as their heartbeats, while they hoped there wouldn't be a future in which they would have to confront the oviti.

Of course, their wishes weren't heard.

The first one to notice the animal was too near was Ariela, the smell of putrefaction and dead reaching her nose and making her gag. Then Allura heard the creature's steps and they decided to stop, as it would catch up on then sooner or later, and recover their breath before the fight that was about to come. Allura sat Pidge in the highest branch she could reach, and the girl handed her knife to Ariela, as she prepared to make the so needed throw.

The creature appeared jumping to avoid tree roots and let out a howl when it spotted the two women standing still, waiting for it.

"If I miss, we'll have to manage," Ariela said, as she felt that breathing was something difficult all of a sudden while taking the first knife behind her head and correcting her posture. Once the animal was close enough, she aimed and threw, crying out like a tennist because of the effort and the pressure.

The knife flew without spinning or turning and it nailed the creature in the chest, burying in its flesh to the hilt. The ovini whimpered, stopping dead in its tracks to retreat, and Ariela took her chance to make a second throw, using Sugey's knife this time. She draw back her arm, aimed, threw and watched. She had aimed for the eye, but the animal moved and the knife sank between its eyes, the dead body dropping to the ground with a weird sound, and Ariela felt her whole body tingle in some unpleasant feeling. She felt even worse than when she had killed the Galra soldiers.

"You did it," Pidge gasped, and the women turn to look at her, hugging to the tree tightly and eyes wide open.

"I did it," Ariela nodded, eyes wide open and feeling like she was about to throw up, both because of the smell and what she had just done. She put herself together and walked towards the dead animal to retrieve the knife, and though she struggled, she finally managed to pull the crystal river from the animal's skull.

"We should take it with us," Allura said nonchalantly, making the two paladins look at her like she had just admitted that she had killed Coran.

"What? Are you crazy?" Pidge asked.

"It's good for their economy. They might even make weapons out of it, and we could get some things," she said.

"Whatever you want, princess, but I'm carrying Pidge. I prefer my brain melting than touching this," she said, and the girl shouted a "Hey" from the branch she was still sitting on, while Ariela walked towards her and held her arms out to catch her.

# ***

The grigkean warriors outside of the trio that had practised with them were really surprised when they appeared with a dead oviti, saying they had taken it with them so that they could trade it in the market. Ilayi said that, as they had killed it, they were in all the right, and that they would be having a party to celebrate they had passed all the trials before, and that they would discuss alliance the next day.

Nallely and Erandi helped them to skin the oviti and clean the bones to sell them, and then the trio walked to the market, to trade, having divided the stuff that they could barter in three equal parts.

Allura got a lot of spices, condiments, fruits and vegetables, saying that she didn't need anything and that it was something they would all enjoy. Pidge bought herself a few knives and books, that were really expensive, along with a few pieces of clothing. Ariela bought jewelry, looking for simple necklaces that matched the paladin's colours and buying one each, a few potted plants and flowers and clothes.

"Look what I got you!" she sing sang, as she walked to the cockpit in the panther, swinging a long black leather necklace, decorated with a silver tag that (if Yaretzi hadn't lied to her) wild in Grigk language. She hung it on the two levers and looked at it proudly.

_Thank you. I must assume you did better than well in your last trial_ Bagheera said, in a calm tone.

"I nailed that dogs head with a fancy knife," she answered, taking Sugey's knife out of a black leather sheath she had bought. She could hang it on her Voltron uniform, which was great.

_Great. When will we go back to the other paladins?_ he asked, and Ariela's shoulders tensed, as she frowned.

"Tomorrow afternoon I believe. Why? You don't feel comfortable here=" she asked, sitting in the pilot's chair.

_It's not that. I love this place, but I have a bad feeling... My connection with the lions tells me that their paladins don't feel comfortable at the Capital. I'd like to take them out of there as soon as possible_ he answered, as he let a low growling sound come out of his chest, showing that he was actually worried.

"Aww, look at you, bonding with the team and everything," Ariela laughed. "Don't worry, we'll be back before we can imagine it," she told him, as she caressed the armrest of the chair.

# ***

The celebration of their victory was a bonfire in the centre of the town, music and more alcohol. Pidge knew this time that she shouldn't drink, as this drink actually gave off a strong smell (not like in Menosfor), and ended up falling asleep on Allura's lap, while the princess chatted away with Ilayi.

Meanwhile, Ariela got a little drunk. Not wasted, to the point where she just started screaming and laughing like a damned hyena, but little by little, dancing become easier, practically grinding with Nallely, and the idea of just kissing the woman's mouth off seemed a little bit better than it used to.

Allura decided they should go back to sleep around two in the morning, and Nallely said she would accompany her, as someone needed to make sure that drunk Ariela didn't get lost while chatting alone, thinking they were listening to her, and other had to carry Pidge.

Nallely entered the house with Ariela laughing and clinging to her arm, as she laughed lowly because she was feeling dizzy and for her drunk self, it was funny. The fire was already lit, letting them know that Ilayi and Sugey were already home, and Allura said (after leaving Pidge in the pelts) she would talk to Ilayi for a moment, before leaving. Nallely watched her go, and when she disappeared after a door, she turned to tell Ariela that she should probably go to sleep, but the woman stood on her tiptoes and gave her a quick peck on the lips, blushing madly and backing away after a small second.

"Oh," the grigkean said, a blush creeping on her cheeks too, and Ariela looked at the floor.

"I'm sorry I didn't ask it's just...," she started, before licking her lips and lowering her voice to a whisper. "I'm drunk, but Pidge can't know because she's a minor." And then she was laughing. "You're really beautiful. Can I give you another kiss?" she asked then, and Nallely blushed harder.

"I'm sorry but... I don't err..., like you like that," she said, and panic rose when she saw how Ariela's eyes turned sad all of a sudden and the woman pouted, making the twenty-two years she was drift away and give place to the looks of a seven-year-old that had been severely lectured.

"You don't think I'm pretty?" she asked, voice slightly cracked. The grigkean's eyes opened widely, thinking of how she wasn't meant to deal with this kind of stuff. She would rather fight Ariela again than have this conversation with her.

"No, no, no. You are really pretty and you fight really good and you dance... God, you dance really well. I'm just interested in someone else," Nallely said, putting her hands on the woman's shoulders, and when she said the last sentence, Ariela's head shot up, eyes gleaming with curiosity, all of the sadness going away, face bright with curiosity.

"Who do you like?" she asked, with a bright smile. Nallely looked away and Ariela gasped. "You like Allura!" she exclaimed, and Nallely shushed her.

"Yes, but you don't have to shout it so that the whole village hears it," the grigkean said through gritted teeth, ad Ariela put a finger to her lips and shushed herself.

"Oh, I really ship it. You know what we are going to do? I'll pretend to have fallen asleep, and you'll make a move on her when she arrives? Got and get her tiger," she told Nallely, not giving a chance to speak back, before slightly slapping her arm, turning and stumbling her way to the pelts where she slept.

Nallely had settled for waiting until she fell asleep to run away to her bedroom and avoid Allura, but Ariela seemed more awake than she had ever seen her, and the princess appeared sighing through the hallway before Ariela even blinked.

"Your mum is already fast asleep, so I guess we'll have to wait until tomorrow," she announced, before standing in front of the other woman, who was still blushing. "Are you okay? You look feverish," she asked and Ariela's face became something that couldn't be explained but expressed pure happiness and expectancy.

"I'm alright. I just drank a few glasses of..., whatever and I'm blushing because of it," the woman answered, and her eyes shot to Ariela giving her a thumbs up from the floor, before returning to Allura's deep and big blue eyes.

"Oh. I should have guessed so," the princess nodded, and after she stopped talking an uncomfortable silence fell between them.

"So, I'll see you in the morning?" Nallely asked after gulping and Allura nodded.

"Oh, c'mon. That was the most pathetic attempt to flirt I've seen in my life!" Ariela exclaimed, and both women turned to her (Allura completely confused and Nallely on the verge of becoming a murderer) but even drunk the human thought quickly. "Lance, I did not raise you to be like this," she kept on, with her eyes closed, before giving off a little snore.

"Ah, yes. She talks a lot in her sleep. Lance is her brother," Allura explained with a warm smile, and it was physically painful to hold back the relieved sigh Nallely wanted to let out. "Well, I'll see you in the morning."

# ***

Ariela woke up with a slight headache, a dry mouth and furious screams coming from somewhere, making her groan and hide under the pelts, trying to muffle the screaming and go back to sleep.

"Ari, wake up," Pidge told her while shaking her, and that was when the woman recognised that the people screaming where Ilayi and Allura. She opened her eyes and sat up, getting dizzy from the lack of blood in her brain.

"What happened?" she asked, looking at Pidge. She was already dressed, but her hair was a mess and her sleepy eyes were still there.

"I think we'll have to go soon. Allura went to talk to Ilayi and she isn't taking the deal really well," she explained, and Ariela noticed she was still dressed in the clothes she had worn the night before.

"Oh god, we've gone through all that for nothing," Ariela said, as she stood up and tied her hair in a tinybun at the speed of light, listening carefully to the argument going on on the back of the house. "Man, it doesn't sound good," she said before a door was bursted open and Allura came out from a bedroom, fast steps and choking back tears, as Ilayi screamed "I want you out of my village right now!"

# ***

They arrived at the government house when it the sky was already getting dark.

Although they had left the village when it was still early, Allura was so frustrated she felt like punching stuff, so instead of directly going to the capital, they stopped in a forest and watched as Allura practically cut down trees with her fists and kicks, crying in anger. She called it the wet anger.

"I should have known they wouldn't accept. I was so stupid..." she would mutter from time to time, and the paladins knew better than trying to comfort her. In situations like this, the best was let it all out before talking about it.

She went on in this feral rage for a few hours, and then they managed to calm her down and take her to the green lion, make a bandage on her bleeding hands and just talk about how the conversation with Ilayi had been. The worry of how the boys were going to react when they knew that there would be no alliance had them all a little bit worried, so they just sat for a while, thinking of how they could have made it work (there was no way, the problem between the village and the rest of Grigk escaped their hands).

The thing was that they were already prepared to face the rest of the paladins and Coran when they arrived. So, when they finally got to the Capital and discovered that they had gone out (some sort of expedition to a chain of mountains with a guide) they felt a little bit worse. In silence, they ate what the girgkeans gave to them and went to bed.

The princess was alone in the wide bedroom, and as it was already late at night, the only light was one of the two wide moons shining in the sky. Allura was lying on the, compared to her own, harsh bed on her back, when a hand was pressed against her mouth and she opened her eyes, ready to attack whoever it was that was there with her, meeting lilac worried eyes. Nallely shushed her quiet, before helping her up.

"We have to hide, quick," she whispered to the princess, as she made her get into a little wardrobe. She obliged, questions accumulating on her brain, and Nallely closed the door after them.

"What is going on?" she asked the woman, but she shushed her again. Then, the door of the bedroom opened.

"Where's the other altean?" a male voice asked.

"Agh, crap. Zover is not going to like this. We have to look for her and take her with the rest, or he won't call Zarkon," another replied. Allura's eyes opened widely, and Nallely nodded, understanding her surprise. "Tell the others that we need to organise a search party." And after that, they were gone.

"What?" Allura asked a few seconds after she heard the door of the bedroom close, and Nallely opened the one from the wardrobe.

"I started to suspect that they had something going on when you said why we had to move. I know Grigk really well, and our territory doesn't count with any material that only exists there. They sent you to my village because they wanted you to separate from the men. The less, the easier to get," she explained, as she walked towards the open window. Allura then noticed a creeper plant on the wall and something that looked like a horse waiting in the ground a few floors down.

"Why would they want to get us?" she asked, as she climbed out the window, holding to the plant tightly.

"Zover probably realised that the Galra are getting stronger and that we don't stand a chance against them, but we are enemies. Without a sign of good will, they wouldn't trust them. What better sign that handing in the paladins of Voltron and the two only alteans left?" Nallely explained.

"And you came her all alone to help us?" she asked, as they climbed down. There were a few seconds of silence before she answered.

"I know you are really good people, and I hate the Galra and this government as much as you do. I want to help you fight. If you would take me like a soldier, I would feel honoured," she answered, and though her eyes were serious, a blush was creeping on her cheeks.

"Of course. We need all the help that we can get," Allura nodded.

# ***

Keith had woken up in the worst possible way. He had been cuddling with Lance (after two nights without sleep and nightmares he had gone to his teammate for help again) when someone had ripped him apart from the other boy and held him down, as someone sank a needle in his neck and put something on his system that didn't allow him to move properly.

Now he was perfectly awake, the drug they had given him had worn off hours ago, but he was chained to a wall. Hunk was there, completely tied up just like Lance, and Shiro had some weird collar around his neck. They would later learn that it shocked him every time he moved.

Coran had been there too, tied up, but he had managed to break his bounds and tried to escape. The guards had reduced him and taken him out of the wide cell they had thrown them all into.

Keith had some good insults to shout to those idiots, but he had a muzzle preventing him from it. The rest of the team was just gagged with cloths, probably because they didn't have his same sharp teeth.

The cell was wide, and the only lights were the ones from the torches on the guard hallways and the little silver rays of moonlight coming in from a tiny opening near the roof so that they wouldn't die of suffocation. They were pretty quiet, after trying to break loose and struggling for hours, but everything went to shit when five guys entered the cell, carrying Ariela and Pidge. They were both tied up, and Ariela had a muzzle too, but Pidge was only gagged.

"Find the princess as soon as possible. I want to call Zarkon tonight," Zover said, as one of the guards dropped Pidge near Shiro and other dropped Ariela in the centre of the room. The girl seemed to be unconscious, but Ariela wasn't. Lance's and Shiro's eyes widened, the first one starting to struggle and scream when he noticed his sister's soft crying, trying to move, but only managing to move her head to the side and rest it against the stone floor. They had drugged her too.

"The five paladins of Voltron and..., someone else," the guard that had been keeping an eye on them said while kneeling down next to the woman and grabbing her chin with harsh fingers. "She's not that bad, for a human," he added.

"You can do whatever you want with her. I think I'll do the same with the princess once we found her. Someone has to show that little bratty bitch where her place is," Zover said, crossing his arms over his chest. "Take her now. She might not be important, but Zarkon might not let us keep her," he added, and Lance's screams became louder, as he struggled against the ropes that burnt his skin. "Enjoy yourself," the president said, before walking out of the cell.

The guard almost immediately lowered his face to start nipping at Ariela's neck, and she sobbed loudly, tears streaming down her face, making Lance's vision get red with anger and Shiro's whole body shake in the urgency of going and helping her. Hunk had started to pull against his restraints too, and Keith's chains were straining. The same place where the weird feeling of longing for his pack had appeared (something that felt like a void) was now burning with angered fire. His head was drowning in an animalistic thought of "No one touches my pack", repeating it over and over again, as he tried to break free.

"I hope you like being watched, bitch," the guard said, eyeing Keith, and the woman sobbed louder.

It was a torture. Having to sit back and watch how that guy made his way with his crying and vulnerable sister was making all of his body pulse in anger, but no matter how much he pulled and squirmed there was no getting out of the binding. Lance was too focused on digging daggers into the guard's nape as he took Ariela's pants off to notice that Hunk had managed to snap the ropes on his wrists split, and was quickly undoing the ones binding his legs.

The guard was lowering his face towards Ariela's inner thighs when a strong leg kicked him on the head and knocked him out, at the same time it sent him flying against a wall.

"Are you okay, Ariela?" he asked, as he started to untie the woman, and she shook her head, sobbing loudly and shaking. She couldn't move a lot yet, but she managed to lift her arms and reach out for Lance, making him ache to get closer to her. "I got it," Hunk mumble, before leaving her and running to untie Lance.

He had the ropes still tangled around his body when he set off running and picked Ariela up, hugging her close against his chest and feeling with a void in his chest how she cried desperately.

"It's alright, sis. He's gone now," he told her, as he undid the muzzle around her mouth. The second it was out she started calling out for him as if she was stuck in middle of a nightmare. "I'm here with you," he assured her. Shiro appeared, Hunk having taken the weird collar off of him, but Ariela buried her face in Lance's chest after giving him a look.

"It's okay. He won't hurt you. He's Shiro, a softie," Lance said, before mouthing the man to hold her up.

"Lance..., don't...," she said, while he passed her body to Shiro, reaching out weakly for him, pushing against Shiro's chest trying to get away from him, but he held her still.

"It's okay. I'm not leaving, I'm just going to check on Keith," Lance told her, and left the woman pouting behind him. She tried to walk away from Shiro, but her legs gave out and she would have fallen to the floor if he hadn't caught her. She started to cry again, burying her face on his chest.

" _Hey, não há necessidade de chorar, gatinha. Você está segura comigo,_ " the man told her with strangled and hoarse voice as he caressed her hair, and Ariela lifted her face to look at him in the eye, and she seemed a little more composed.

"What happened to your voice?" she asked him, speaking lowly and slowly as if talking required too much work.

"They put something on my neck and it hurt, but I'm okay now," he answered, and she pouted again. "Why are you crying now?"

"I don't like you getting hurt. I want to kick their plain asses," she murmured, before hugging him. "He tried to rape me..., Takashi," she said, and the man's head shot up when he heard his name being pronounced like that. Ariela couldn't remember what his nickname was at the moment, but she remembered his name so that would have to do.

"But he couldn't. Hunk was there and he stopped it. It won't happen again, I promise," he told her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey, não há necessidade de chorar, gatinha. Você está segura comigo: Hey, there's no need to cry, kitten. You're safe with me.


	19. [NOT UPDATED]

Lance was so surprised. When Hunk managed to unchain Keith, the boy had marched towards Shiro and Ariela without taking his eyes away from them, growling lowly and threateningly, passing Lance as if he didn't exist and making him feel a little bit bad about it. The only thing in the red paladin's was the smell of fear, distress and anguish, as he heard a pack member crying, the _need_ to hold the woman close, protect her and comfort her was making his body ache.

Shiro tensed slightly when he heard Keith getting near, but he forced himself to relax. Ariela, on the other side, unburied her head from Shiro's hug and looked at Keith with wide and innocent golden eyes. Silence fell between them, and Keith's low grumbling slowly fell to a stop, seeming like they were having a telepathic conversation, and then Ariela was struggling out of Shiro's arms to let herself crash into Keith's, purring loudly and closing her eyes, as he hugged her tightly.

"What the fuck?" Lance whispered, not wanting to even _move_ as if it might break the atmosphere that had built. He could see how the black paladin seemed really nervous and uneasy, fidgeting with the hem of his vest, as he looked at the pair with..., sad eyes.

"Guys, I'm all in on this comforting-Ariela thing, but we have to find Allura and Coran and get the hell out of here," Hunk said, as he picked up Pidge from the floor and flung her on his shoulder as if she was a potato bag.

"Hunk's right. Can you walk, Ariela?" Shiro asked, getting near the woman, and everyone was surprised when Keith growled at him slightly, but she shook her head slowly. "I can carry you."

"No." Surprisingly, it was Hunk again. "I'll carry her and Lance will carry Pidge. You and Keith are the two best at hand to hand combat, so we will be needing you able to fight. But before going out of here, we need to figure out a plan," he said. "We have to find our bayards, Coran, Allura and figure out a way of getting the panther and the green lion on the Castle with their pilots disabled."

"Hunk is right. _No podemos salir caminando por el pasillo como si nada. Nos harían pija,_ " Ariela nodded, speaking faster, but switching languages in the middle of her train of thought. " _Podríamos escondernos hasta que Pidge y yo estemos mejor, y ahí manejamos los robots. ¿Cuánto tarda esta porquería en irse?_ " she kept talking, and Lance got near her. Keith didn't growl at him when the man pulled her away from him and sat her on the stone floor.

" _Depende. Con migo tardó un buen rato, pero con Keith no. Es como si su organizmo quisiera sacarle la droga a la cañona,_ " he explained to her, as he sat beside her and rubbed his temples. He looked at his team before speaking. "I say we wait at least an hour 'til the drug's effect wears off on her. We chain the guard, and, If more come with Allura, we take them down. There aren't many options," Lance said. 

"I agree with Lance. Waiting for a little bit is the best thing we can do," Keith said, surprising everyone yet again. 

" _Lance_..." Ariela called him while tugging at his shirt. 

Ariela rarely got like this. Usually, when something bad happened or she was feeling depressed, she would completely shut down, distancing herself from everyone until she thought she was composed enough to not be vulnerable in front of someone. The situations where she had directly relied on someone after a bad event where few, and the ones where she had relied on Lance could be counted on the fingers of one hand, as he wasn't usually at the woman's reach. But still, he perfectly knew that he had to cuddle her and talk non-stop, which was kind of his thing. 

So he just held Ariela in a side hug, while rubbing circles on her arm with his thumb, as he talked about all the stuff they had done when they were younger: getting drunk and lost in a corn maze, rehearsing with the whole family when Lance applied to play Burr when the local theater wanted to present Hamilton, jumping in the swimming pool with their clothes on in New Year, hiding chocolate eggs for the little ones on Easter, practicing choreographies made by Flynn, playing the guitar and singing on Christmas Eve. She would listen with a smile and closed eyes, humming along the anecdotes. 

In the time the two Latins spoke in low voices (Keith watching from a polite distance but still paying attention to what they were saying, though he couldn't make a single word out), Hunk and Shiro had chained the guard to the wall, the first one panicking when he noticed the massive bruise on the man's face already forming and the stream of blood coming out from an open wound. But the older had put a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You did the right thing, Hunk. There's no reason to feel bad about it," he had said, making the yellow paladin smile softly. 

"I just panicked. I wanted to take him off of her and..." he looked at Shiro doubtingly before talking again. "I wanted to hurt him, Shiro. I had never wanted to hurt someone so bad in my entire life," he confessed, burying his face in his hands, and Shiro squeezed his shoulder. 

"It was instinct. A teammate was being molested and you reacted," Shiro kept saying. 

An hour and a half had passed. The guard didn't wake up nor did others get near their cell. Keith found the keys to the door on the guard's belt and the drug wore off enough for Ariela to be able to talk normally and walk like a normal person, but her balance wasn't good enough to fight yet. Pidge had woken up, but all he could do was whine and move her head from side to side. 

"Okay. We have to find Coran, our bayards, Allura and then go back to our lions. I think that, by the time we have done all of that, Pidge will be able to clumsily fly the green lion," Shiro said, nodding. 

Keith opened his mouth to say something, but the sound of the heavy door of the cell made them stand suddenly, Shiro's arm lighting up, and put their bodies on a fighting stance, as Ariela moved to hide Pidge from sight. But then she saw a tall man with orange hair and an also tall girl wearing a red one-piece, smiling brightly as she held a narrow knife made out of bone in her hand. 

"Coran!" Lance said happily, as he ran to hug the man, who received him with open arms. 

"Sugey! What are you doing in here?" she asked, as she started to get up slowly, the girl walking towards her with a bright smile. 

"I followed Nallely here, and I figured out I might help as well," she answered, and she looked around. Her lilac eyes spotted the collar Shiro had been wearing, and they turned sad and angry at the same time, hands clenching and lips tightening. "I hope I didn't come late. I saw what that man was doing to you, but I couldn't do more than cutting his ropes," she said, still looking at the collar, until she pointed at Hunk. 

They all looked at him, and he looked at the place he had been lying when he was tied up. The shine of another narrow knife made out of metal caught his eye and the pieces fell into place. 

"That's the reason I suddenly was able to cut them. Because I didn't cut them," he exclaimed. Ariela turned to the girl, frowning and curious. 

"You know how to throw knives?" she asked her, and Sugey smiled brightly. 

"I learnt from looking at you." 

Ariela was going to ask how in hell that was possible (she had taken her sweet months to learn how to actually throw a knife decently) but Coran cleared his throat. 

"I think we should get going. The lady says she knows where your bayards are, and that Allura is safe with her sister," the royal adviser said. Lance ran to pick Pidge up, Sugey's eyes acquiring a shade of worry and sadness when she saw the girl, and they all walked out of the door. 

"Where are all the guards?" Keith asked, metal knife (he had picked it up at the chance f having a weapon) in hand, as they walked through poorly lit hallways. 

"They are all looking for the princess and Nallely," Sugey answered, as she peaked into a corridor and told them it was safe. 

"What are you and Nallely doing here?" Ariela asked. 

"She wasn't happy that mum made you leave, and she spent an hour thinking about it. Then she realised that there was something wrong with the reason the president had given you to go and assumed you were all in danger. She told mum we should come and look for you, but she didn't care that you're the universe's last hope. Long story short? They argued and mum kicked her out. I followed her because I wanted to help," she explained. 

"Does..., your mum know you're here?" Pidge asked with a hoarse voice, and Sugey's eyes seemed to light up when she noticed she was fine. 

"No, but I wrote her a letter before leaving," was her answer, before she signalled them to stop. "That's the room where they keep your bayards, but it's guarded and I can't take him down." Shiro advanced, arm lighting up. 

"I've got this," he said with a voice that sent chills running down Ariela's spine.

# ¨¨¨¨

Allura hadn't had a bodyguard in her life. It didn't matter that she was the princess of a planet at war, as she was always inside the safe walls of the Castle of Lions. This being said, it was completely natural for her to be a little surprised and not knowing how to feel when she had Nallely fervently protecting her all the time at all costs, as she had always fought for herself.

The princess had told the woman that she could protect herself, and Nallely had simply smiled and responded "I know, but if one of us is to stay behind, it has to be me" and Allura's heart had just stopped at the way the woman had smiled, as if talking about sacrificing herself for people she barely knew had the same meaning like talking about the weather.

They had looked for the team, and actually made it to the cell where they had heard guards saying they were, but they found it open and empty, excepting for a beating guard, sleeping chained to a wall.

"Oh, god. I hope they're fine," Allura said.

"I'm sure they are. What worries me is that they don't know the castle, nor grigkeans. It's like jumping into a fight naked and unarmed," Nallely said, as she grabbed Allura's hand and pulled her out of the cell, bodies stuck to the wall, as they advanced silently.

There were sounds of struggle and they jumped towards them as if it was about hungry predators jumping over a weak prey.

The second they turned in a corridor and found almost all of the team crouching behind a wall, watching as Shiro hid a knocked out guard inside of a room, Allura's whole body felt lighter and she sighed, accelerating her running towards the group.

"Guys!" she called them in a whisper and seven surprised heads turned towards her, one completely surprising her. Nallely stopped running for a second, before going even faster than the princess.

"Sugey! What the fuck are you doing here?" she asked her sister, and Allura didn't miss the way the girl flinched, looking like a little girl that heard her mum screaming her name after a smashing sound, knowing that they had messed up and that they would regret it.

"I followed you here," the girl answered in a low voice as if she was scared. The only light in that corridor was moonshine coming through the window, but Allura was 95% sure that she was blushing and fidgeting.

"You have to go back to mum!" Nallely told her through gritted teeth, and her sister's face seemed to acquire some hardness that wasn't there before.

"I don't want to hide in the village like them, I want to go and fight like you!" she told her, and the whole team wanted to aww, but they knew that if they didn't want Nallely beating them up they shouldn't.

"I'm twenty-six, you're nine. Do you see the difference?" the older asked, and Ariela's eyes opened up like plates when she heard the youngest's age.

"And? I can throw knives and you can't," Sugey answered, and Nallely's eyes turned to Ariela.

"I want to make clear that I had absolutely nothing to do with it and I don't deserve dying, as I am a young and beautiful person who has a whole life ahead of her," the woman said, making her brother smile, and Nallely turned to her sister again.

"I don't care what you can or can't do. The second we get them safe I' taking you to the village," she said, and Sugey was so outraged there were no words to describe it.

"I've got them!" Shiro exclaimed, waving the bayards in his hands as if they were flags, his eyes immediately catching Allura's white hair and widening. "Allura! This is great! We're going to make it out of here in a blink!"

Lance and Ariela looked at each other in panic.

" _¡Tocate la teta izquierda!_ " he shouted, as he drove his hand to his crotch balancing Pidge's weight with his body for a few seconds.

" _¡Tocate el huevo izquierdo!_ " he shouted at the same time, as she grabbed her left boob.

The whole team looked at them with narrow eyes, not knowing what was going on between them and kind of not wanting to know. Hunk was opening his mouth to say that they should just keep moving, but another voice was the one they heard.

"THE PRISONERS ARE GONE! LOCK EVERYTHING DOWN!"

"I WANT THEM KNEELING BEFORE MY FEET!" a second voice shouted, and they all panicked as they recognised it as Zover's. The one getting the most panicked look was Sugey.

"We have to move, _now_ ," Nallely said, before grabbing Allura's hand again and leading the way down the corridor, opposite direction from where the voices had come.

The team followed them undoubtingly, as Shiro passed them their bayards and kept Pidge's. Ariela was slowly becoming more aware of her body, balance reintegrating to her moves and her brain focused enough to make a spear out of her bayard.

"Where are your lions?" Nallely asked.

"They're in the house's yard," Keith answered, ears twitching and moving to the direction he heard several people running from. With a hand on the back of the person that was in front of him, he told them to hurry.

"We need to start the Castle before they reach it or we'll be dead," Coran said, making Allura groan.

"But there's no way we're getting there before the guards if we have to go and get the lions first. They are probably already sending people there!" the princess complained, and Nallely looked over her shoulder.

"Are you the captain?" she asked Coran, and Allura's face went blank.

" _I_ am the captain," she answered, and Ariela wanted to laugh at the way the woman's tone screamed the phrase 'Bitch, what the fuck?'. And Nallely wanted to act surprised, but instead she kept thinking.

"I can take the princess on my felare to the Castle so she can get everything going as you get your lions ready," she explained.

"Excuse me, but what the fuck is a flare?" Lance asked, as they turned in a corridor and suddenly face two guards. Before anyone could yelp, they were already turning around and running in the opposite direction, not paying attention to the shouts of "Stop right there" coming from the guard's mouths.

"It's a really fast animal that we use for transportation," Sugey answered calmly, before turning to her sister. "I'll take them to the yard, you can take the princess to the Castle," she said, and when Nallely's lips formed a line, the girl's voice turned serious. " _I can do this, sister,_ ," she said slowly as if she was explaining something difficult.

The older grigkean faced the way they were going, noticing that if they wanted to get out of the house they had to keep going, while the paladins would have to turn. She faced her sister again.

"I trust you, Sugey. Good luck."

The girl nodded, her face moe serious than it had ever been, before telling the rest of the group they had to turn in the corridor. A few steps later they were gone, and Nallely was already feeling the sickness settling on her stomach, but a hand gripped her's tighter, and Allura looked at her with soft eyes.

"She will be okay. My paladins will protect her," the princess told her. Nallely nodded as she gulped and fastened their pace.

# ¨¨

Ariela had half of her mind absently turning on the panther's switches and buttons, as she got ready in the pilot's chair and lifted the levers, pressing the treadle and making the robot start ascending from the floor, sending a few angry guards flying backwards with the strength of the propellers, with an amazed Sugey clutching to her right arm and watching everything with wide and curious eyes.

"Pidge, how are you doing?" she asked over the intercom, as she watched how the green lion slowly started to rise.

"I'm..., kind of fine," the girl answered, and they both could see how focused she was on keeping control of the lion, as Coran (who had been assigned as her companion) looked at her every movement, ready to take control of the situation (or at least do what he could) if it was too much for the girl.

"Okay, paladins. Allura has already started the Castle, so we'll have to fly around it until we can get the lions on the hangar," Shiro said, as they all flew towards the Castle of Lions, already rising towards the sky.

"Wait! We need to leave Sugey with her family," Ariela said, but the curious eyes of the young girl turned angry.

"I'm coming with you whether you like it or not. I'm not sitting back and watching as some prick's take over the universe," she told the woman.

"You're nine years old, for sun's sake," Allura muttered through gritted teeth, as she tilted the panther and evaded missiles that a little ship chasing them had shot. "Since when do they have spaceships?" she asked.

"I'M USEFUL!" Sugey screamed, making the woman look at her with doubting eyes. She bit her lip as she thought. "There is no time for you to leave me there, so you either drop me here and let them take me as a prisoner or you take me with you and let me deal with my sister's shit," she kept pushing.

"Just let her come, Ariela! You let me do it!" Lance exclaimed over the intercom, and Ariela groaned so loudly it scared some.

"Okay, but you will take responsibility," she said.

_Can I take that ship-shit down? It is starting to piss me off_ Bagheera asked, making himself present in the woman's mind, while she turned to evade another shot.

"Do it or I'll do it myself," she said, and the panther's tail aimed and shot a blue ray of energy, making the little ship explode.

"Ariela!" Shiro exclaimed, and she rolled her eyes.

"As if they didn't deserve it," she muttered, almost feeling like she was talking back to her father.

# ¨¨¨¨

They all headed to the healing pods the second they were on the ship, Nallely and Sugey being left alone in the common area to talk their problems out, or maybe fight them out, who knows? Coran was left in the control deck too. They had jumped in a wormhole the second they were far from the grigkean ships, but they still wanted to be alert, in case the Galran magically knew where they were..., again.

The first one to wake up was Hunk. Then Keith and Lance, Allura and Ariela. It seemed that the collar around Shiro's neck had damaged him more than they had thought, because he didn't wake up much more before Pidge, and she had a sprained ankle.

Allura offered the two grigkeans using the healing ponds, but they both declined; Sugey because she wasn't harmed and Nallely because she didn't trust those things (she had been acting really awkward around so much technology, making them smile when she had trouble opening doors).

"Do you think she will ever forgive me?" Sugey asked in a tiny voice, as Ariela helped her to put sheets on the bed of the bedroom he had been given. It was next to the woman's, in front of her sister's.

Ariela turned to the girl and looked at her, taking a few seconds to realise she was crying in silence, a little pout on her lips reminding her that that girl was barely nine-years-old. She imitated the pout, as she got near the girl and hugged her.

"Don't cry, darling. I'm sure she has already forgiven you," she told the girl (that reached her nose, Ariela wanted to cry. She had grown four inches and she was still tiny), as she hugged her back, sniffing slightly.

"You think so?" she asked, and Ariela nodded, despite Sugey wasn't able to see her.

"I know so. I'm an older sister too, and I know that Nallely just wants you safe. That's what I want for my younger siblings too," she answered, parting from the girl, looking into the lilac innocent eyes.

"Who's your sibling?" Sugey asked, wiping her tears away with her forearm.

"Did you see the brown-haired and skinny guy?" The girl nodded. "Well, he's Lance and he's my brother. We're not actually blood-related, but I'm part of his family anyways," she explained.

"He's cute," Sugey said, with a little smile, and Airela's eyebrows shot upwards.

"I thought you were a lesbian."

"I'm nine, I don't have idea of what I want," the girl answered simply, making the woman laugh out loud. "Do you think the princess will let me decorate this bedroom? It feels so..., cold," she said, changing subjects.

"It is officially yours, now that you're here, so yeah. I've decorated mine already," she smiled.

# ¨¨¨¨

"Lance?"

He was sitting on his bed, already ready to sleep, when the door slid open and let him see Keith on his pyjamas (a black t-shirt and grey sweatpants), ears stuck to his head as he neared the bed doubtingly. Lance patted the mattress next to him, and the boy walked towards the bed happily, crawling on the bed and lying next to him. Before the blue paladin could even lay down, Keith was already hugging his waist.

"I was so scared I woke up," he said, making Lance's heart rate speed up and a little blush spread on his cheeks, as he lay down and pulled the covers over the both of them, before returning Keith's hug.

"Don't worry, we're okay now," Lance said, eyes closed, as he remembered seeing how hands pulled Keith to the other side of the rough bed and pinned him down so that someone could inject him the drug. He had started to whine immediately, the sound muffled once they put the muzzle on his mouth, making Lance's heart shrink at the treatment his crush (yeah, darling, keep telling yourself that he's just your crush) received. Although he wasn't treated much differently.

"They didn't hesitate on betraying us, those pieces of shit," Keith kept going, and Lance noticed how he tightened his arms around his waist, pulling him even closer, flush against his chest. His teammate usually was gentler while cuddling, letting Lance be the one to pick the position and pull him in, just leaning against the taller teen's chest and resting, but that night he was a little bit uneasy, not wanting to let go of him. Lance could barely hear him when Keith whispered: "I thought the were going to take you away from me."

Of course, he just meant that as a friend and cuddle partner. Lance was the person Keith went to when he had nightmares, it was totally understandable for him to feel bad about not being able to count on him anymore! It was as if he suddenly locked Ariela up somewhere and let Shiro alone to battle with his demons while he slept.

"They didn't, and I'm here now, so relax and sleep, Keith," Lance told him, voice vibrating against Keith's chest as he spoke, and he actually relaxed a little bit at the sound of the blue paladin's voice, thinking about how it was being muffled by his hug and not by a cloth working as a gag.

# ¨¨¨¨¨

Ariela was a little bit restless in her bedroom, alone as everyone was already sleeping (at least that was what she thought), so she had gone to the panther's hangar as if it was as normal as going on a walk to clear her mind. It had the same effect on her, if not better, sitting calmly in the pilot's chair in the cockpit, the purring of the panther turning it into a massage chair.

They had discovered it one time while practising, the ability to project images on the other's mind, and Ariela had immediately proceeded to tell Bagheera everything about Earth, accompanied with amazing high-quality images from her memories. In return, the panther had shown her images of the jungles of Altea. Scenes of the panther hunting or even coming across a pack of lions one time he had gotten too far from home while exploring, or just wandering around had made her so relaxed and feel so at home it was strange.

In that moment she was reliving her last birthday party with her friends. It had been last year, an _asado_ in one of her friend's rooftops. Everyone was laughing and singing and telling anecdotes, some of the oldest friends talking about primary school and how they were one of the most rioters groups of that school's history.

"Ariela?" a voice called, and she opened her eyes, sitting straight on the chair, as the panther stopped his purring and stood, looking at the person that had come into the hangar and shaken them out of their haze.

"Hey, Shiro. I'll be out in a sec," she said, standing up, avoiding the little feeling of jealousy and irritation coming from the panther's mind, as she laughed lowly.

The man looked paler and weaker that he had looked when she had left him in the capital, and there were really dark circles under his eyes, making his dark-grey eyes look even more tired than they already looked, as he fidgeted slightly with the hem of his black pyjama's shirt.

"What's up?" she asked him with a smile, and Shiro bit his cheek. She then was sure he was going to ask her for something, as he always acted like he was acting wrongly when he did, all nervous and looking around as if he didn't want anyone knowing that he was asking for a favour.

"Not much," he actually answered, laughing awkwardly and making Ariela smile. "Actually, I was wondering if we could..., sleep..." he started, before looking at the woman and then down again. "I know last time I hurt you but... I have only slept a few hours this three days and my head is about to explode," he told her.

"Of course, Shiro. Don't worry, it's okay for you to ask me, and I really hope some day you'll just brush it off," she said, lifting her shirt and signalling her stomach. "See? No bruise, it's gone," she told him, before tangling her right arm with his left. "Let's go to sleep." She waved the panther goodbye and they started walking.

The way to the bedroom was silent, and Ariela smiled when she noticed that the man aimed to her bedroom instead of his. They got in, laid down and turned the lights off. Shiro covered them with the blankets and pulled Ariela closer, resting his head against the woman's chest and letting her rest her chin on his, as she scraped his scalp, enjoying the now familiar weight of the man's arms around her waist.

"How were the nightmares while I was gone?" she asked.

"Just like when you left, but I didn't have anyone to calm me down," he answered, voice already sleepy.

"Takashi Shirogane," she started, like an angry mother, making that weird feeling return to Shiro's gut again when she said his full name. "What did I tell you just before leaving?" He rolled his eyes.

"That I could ask the others for help," he answered, pressing his face against her. "But I couldn't bring myself to do it. If it wasn't because _you_ got me _addicted_ to this I wouldn't even reach out for you," he answered, and she sighed. A comfortable silence followed then.

"I got you addicted to what?" Ariela asked, breaking said silence, and Shiro bit his cheek before answering.

"The sound of a heartbeat, or the feeling or it. The extra warmth," he started, and he filled his lungs with air before just admitting what he kind of wanted to admit. "You somehow manage to make me feel protected," he laughed nervously. Ariela smiled at his answer.

"It's because your not alone, Shiro, not because I have magical powers." Then a question surged on her mind. "Did you have a cell partner when you were a prisoner?" Shiro frowned at the question, focusing on remembering.

"At the beginning I did, but when they decided I would be a gladiator they put me on solitary," he answered, and Ariela pressed against him harder.

"How much time did you have a partner?"

"I don't know. Time is not a thing when you are there. It could have been days or weeks, even hours," was his response. Ariela's gut twisted, imagining a desperate and sad Shiro sitting alone in a dark cell, afraid and weak.

She pressed a kiss on his temple, the man's body tensing before relaxing even more.

"Sleep," she ordered him with a smooth voice.

"Thanks."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -No podemos salir caminando por el pasillo como si nada. Nos harían pija: We can't just go out walking like it was nothing. They would beat the shit out of us.
> 
> -Podríamos escondernos hasta que Pidge y yo estemos mejor, y ahí manejamos los robots. ¿Cuánto tarda esta porquería en irse?: We could hide until Pidge and I are better, and then we can drive the robots. How long does it take this crap to wear off?
> 
> -Depende. Con migo tardó un buen rato, pero con Keith no. Es como si su organizmo quisiera sacarle la droga a la cañona: It depends. It took a while with me, but not with Keith. It was as if his organism wanted to kick it out.
> 
> -¡Tocate la teta izquierda!: Touch your left boob!
> 
> -¡Tocate el huevo izquierdo!: Touch your left ball (testicle)! (T.N: In Argentina it is believed that if someone says something will go well, they challenge destiny and now the most probable thing is for the situation to go down. This is called mufa. To avoid _mufar_ something, the women have to touch their left boob and the guys their left testicle. It is a variant of knocking on wood)


	20. [NOT UPDATED]

Allura walked into the kitchen still half asleep, wearing her nightgown and her feet sliding across the floor, instead of actually rising and stepping over and over. She always got up early in the morning, and she never was quite ready, but she used to get dressed before going out of her bedroom; it was one of the most common things finding Shiro running, or training or just having breakfast, dark circles under his eyes and a weak smile, letting the woman know that he hadn't slept. But, ever since he had started to sleep with Ariela, he got up at the same time than the rest of the team, so she had two hours or so for herself, walking around the castle, checking on everything in the control deck and even training.

So, when she walked into the kitchen and found Nallely sitting stiffly in one of the chairs, looking around, she was a little bit surprised. Her hazy mind hadn't allowed her to remember there were new people in the castle, and that (at least the oldest) was an early bird.

"Princess," Nallely said while she stood up the second she saw Allura coming through the door. The woman brushed it off with a gesture of her hand.

"You can call me Allura, Nallely. Overall when I'm far from looking like a princess," she smiled, as she walked towards the pantry.

She was really happy that they had stored the stuff they had bought at the grigkean donnybrook at the panther and green lion, otherwise, they would have had to leave all behind at the government house, a thing that Allura would have regretted a lot, as the food she had bought was delicious.

"You still look like a princess to me," Nallely said, and if it wasn't because of her serious tone, Allura would have taken that as one of those cheesy compliments Lance used to make all the time. Speaking of which, he hadn't flirted with the grigkeans, at least not when she was around to see it. That was weird.

"Oh, well. Now we are going to be really close, you'll discover that the Castle's crew is like a family, so Allura will be fine even if I _am_ a princess," she said, as she took a few fruits out of the pantry, a plate a and a knife. "Would you like something?"

"I'll have what you have," Nallely answered, still standing, as Allura left the stuff she had picked up at the table.

"I have to thank you for rescuing us yesterday. You certainly didn't have to, and you put your life in danger, and we better not talk about you standing up to your mother," Allura said, sitting down and Nallely copied her.

"There's no need to thank me. My mother was being obstinate, not thinking about how an alliance would have been the best thing. After all, you and your paladins _are_ the universe's last hope," the grigkean answered, picking up a knife and starting peeling a perfectly round purple fruit. "I'm still really worried about my sister, though. Sugey is really intelligent and skilled for her age, but she is too impulsive and innocent too. Will she be safe here?" she asked, biting her lip.

"She will stay at the Castle, she won't go out and fight with the paladins. Yesterday was exceptional, although she helped a lot," Allura started, before realising something and frowning. "How did you two know the government so well if you had never been to the capital?" she asked, and Nallely lowered her head, eyes darkening.

"You can't tell anybody if I tell you," the woman told her and Allura nodded. "I had been there before because I had to go looking for Sugey." The princess frowned harder.

"What?" Nallely looked away.

"My mother... A woman came in from the capital many years ago and she fell for her. She's my other mum and Sugey's, the difference is that she never met her," she started, looking at the table and leaving the fruit already completely peeled at the table. "My mother discovered she was the president's wife and she was there to get information. She kicked her out when Sugey was a year old."

"Why would they do that? What information did they think you had?" Allura asked, and Nallely shrugged before going on.

"My sister always insisted that she wanted to know her other mother, and two years ago she escaped one night and went to the capital to look for her. The guards found her and they didn't care she was just a child."

"Oh my god," Allura gasped, hiding her face between her hands, already imagining what had happened. Nallely's voice was so filled with rage it couldn't be anything minor.

"They had her in the same cell where they kept your paladins, with a..., collar in her neck. It gave her an electric shock every time she moved too much. She was crying a lot and I didn't know how to take it off..." Allura grabbed the woman's hand from across the table when she heard that she was starting to cry. "I had never felt so desperate in my life, Allura," she finished.

"How did you take her back? Why were you alone?" the princess kept asking, gripping her hand strongly.

"I just lifted her and took her with me, the collar still on. Our other mother found us and she took it off, but she started screaming at me to never come back. I told Sugey that I didn't know that woman," she kept going. "Mum had thought that she had just escaped to the capital because she didn't want to leave in the village anymore, so she just locked herself in her bedroom and did nothing. She doesn't take being left behind well," Nallely said, adding a little laugh at the end.

"I can't imagine how hard it must have been for you two," Allura admitted, grabbing the woman's other hand and tracing circles with her thumb in slow motions. "You had to go through that, your family is so important to you, and you still didn't hesitate in leaving everything behind to help us," she kept going.

"I couldn't just sit behind and do nothing just because my mother can't let the past go," she said, sniffing and cleaning a single tear that had fallen on the shoulder of the clothes she had worn yesterday. Allura had to tell her about the synthesiser. "But I didn't count on Sugey following me. Ugh, I still can't believe that she did it and I didn't notice!" she complained, laughing nervously.

"She sounds like she is going to be unstoppable in the future," Allura commented with a smile. Nallely lifted her face towards her with bright eyes and a huge smile too.

"She picks stuff up too quickly. Just by watching Ariela she learnt to throw knives the other day," she told her as if it was a secret she had just heard. "Can you believe that? The last thing like that she did was learning throw to pick locks from me telling her what it was about," she added, making Allura's eyes widen.

"When was that?"

"Last week. She broke into my bedroom in two minutes the same day I told her, after just five hours. She's going to overpower me in two years tops," she answered, the smile now soft, eyes nailed in the table.

The door slid open and both Ariela and Shiro walked in, with the woman hugging his torso and having her right cheek pressed into his back, as he asked her to let him go and she denied in a really sleepy tone. And, although her eyes weren't fully open, she didn't miss the holding hands on the table before Nallely quickly let go of Allura's hand and hid her own under it. A smirk grew on her face and the grigkean glared at her.

"Good morning, paladin. You've got a parasite?" Nallely asked, remarking the last word as she squinted at Ariela, who just stuck her tongue out at the woman.

"She won't let go of me. Allura, do something," he asked, fake-crying, and Ariela just hugged him closer and buried her face between his shoulder blades.

"Why don't you let go of Shiro, Ariela?" Allura asked with a smile.

"He's a teddy bear that must be protected," she answered, without taking her face from where she had hidden it, and the man blushed madly, the two women being able to see it even though he buried his face in his hands because it had spread to his neck. "I won't let go until he promises me he will be gentler with himself and stop being awake for days instead of asking for help," she added, and Allura understood what she wanted to make out of all this. Shiro looked at her with begging eyes.

"What? It's your problem, and she's got a good point," Allura shrugged, before cutting a piece of fruit and putting it in her mouth, crossing her legs and looking at the man with a quirked eyebrow, like saying "go on".

Shiro just sighed and walked to the fridge, opening it and taking out a jar of juice from it, stopping and turning for Ariela to take something too. She grabbed that weird-green-liquid-thing that Hunk had given her a time ago.

"Do you want something else?" Shiro mumbled, turning to try to look at the woman that nodded against his back, walking to a place where someone had put something that looked like bread. "Are you going to heat that up?" he asked again, and she nodded again, passing him the mug where she had poured the green liquid, as he put it in the thing that worked like a microwave.

"Oh, Jesus, what did I miss?" Hunk asked from the still opened door, looking at how the woman was clinging to Shiro's back.

"I'm on a mission of destroying certain obstinate and unuseful belief," Ariela declared, and Shiro hummed. The yellow paladin shrugged, before starting to prepare his own breakfast.

"What are we going to do now that we don't have Grigk on our side?" he asked, once he was sat at the table with the rest of them. Ariela had threatened the black paladin with sitting on his lap, but she ended up sitting beside him, still clinging to his arm.

"Keep training? Rescuing more planets? I don't know. It's not like I have an action plan," Allura sighed.

"Those fuckers. If it weren't for Ilayi's village I would nuke that little awful planet of their's," Ariela mumbled, before sipping slowly from her mug, causing everyone to look at her with surprised eyes. Shiro rose an eyebrow, before snorting and starting to laugh lowly. 

"There is a list of a few planets that would make great allies, though. We could just stick to it and..., I don't know. We're just one ship trying to take down an empire," Allura kept going. "It's just that I've been thinking, and I don't believe we can actually do damage until we get Zarkon off the throne," she answered.

"Why would you think that?" Ariela asked, frowning and tilting her head, as Hunk and Shiro nodded to her question.

"Before he was in charge, the Garla couldn't face Altea. Suddenly he barges in and destroys my planet as if it was nothing, and then conquers the whole universe. He even made malteians afraid. Grigkeans are never willing to kneel before anyone and there we had them, desperately trying to win the Galra's trust by handing us to them," she started. "There is something about that man that makes him different, more powerful. If we take him down, we take that away from the empire, and besides it would involve a whole rearrangement of the power chain, unless Zarkon has left everything ready for his departure."

"But we are far from being ready to attack Zarkon. We can't even deal with one druid, imagine the four of them _and_ Zarkon," Shiro said, face full of worry. "The last time we tried to stand up to him Keith almost got killed, we got separated and haunted."

"And I remember that," Allura said, cutting Shiro off. "I'm not saying that we have to go and knock on his door today. But I say that is the only solid plan I can think of: getting ready and helping everyone we can in the meantime."

There was a silence after that. Ariela had noticed Shiro's pulse going up at the mention of Zarkon and the thought of the druids, so she was massaging his arm slowly to keep him calm. Hunk was nervous too, it wasn't as if Lance and he had landed in an awful planet that almost destroyed them, but fixing their lions underwater wasn't easy.

"It seems like the best course of action to me," Nallely commented, breaking the silence, with a shy tone. "I know I just got here yesterday but... I don't know. I just thought you would want my opinion," and now she was practically trembling under everyone's eyes. Why did she feel so out of place?

"We do, Nalle. Thank you," Ariela smiled at her, the grigkean frown at the nickname.

And the all the lights went out again.

"AGAIN? IF IT'S THOSE MICE CHEWING ON THE CABLES I SWEAR TO QUIZNACK..." Coran started screaming from somewhere in the ship.

"What does quiznack mean?" Ariela asked, and Hunk laughed.

"I think it's like a _fuck_ " he answered.

# >>>

Keith usually didn't go through people's stuff without their permission.

Usually.

He had woken up, well-rested, warm and happy, with Lance sleeping against his chest calmly with a soft smile and his eye mask on. When had he put it on? Keith had absolutely no idea.

The idea of just lying there with Lance and continue with the cuddling until the other woke up seemed like the best idea he had ever had, making a warm feeling spread through his body as if it was carried by his blood, but the reminder that he couldn't do this every time was there in the back of his brain like always. Lance was just a teammate and yes, it was really nice of him to offer himself to help Keith with his nightmares, but he was only doing it because of that, and Keith couldn't allow himself to over-enjoy the situation and let his mind in bliss misinterpret everything about Lance and make his hopes rise up. No, Lance was a good teammate, that despite hating him, helped him out.

Because Keith would bet his life on the fact that Lance hated him. Since the first night they had met Lance had been utterly rude to him, acting as if Keith had kicked his puppy or something like that. Of course that Keith's bad temper didn't help one bit, but Lance's treatment didn't get better until they were told that they had to work together or the universe would get conquered by gigantic and purple furries, so now Keith thought that despite Lance's immature facade, he was actually mature and had decided to hide his hate towards Keith while it was necessary.

Well. Keith wanted to cuddle, but as he thought Lance hated him, he got up without waking the other teen up instead of staying in bed until the other woke up. And he swears he was originally planning on immediately going to his bedroom to get dressed, but the curiosity and the knowledge that Lance wouldn't be awake for another good hour or so got the best of him. What did he do? He started looking around the teen's bedroom because that is what non-creepy people do when they are on their crush's bedroom.

It started with merely walking around and eyeing, snorting about how there were two or three books but tonnes of comics on the shelving, and smiling when he saw drawings clearly made by a toddler hanging over the desk, where a red dotted notebook rested alongside a pen.

Did Lance write?

With a last look over his shoulder to check that Lance was definitely asleep, Keith sat down at the desk and opened the notebook. On the first page, it was written "Memories from Earth" in a neat calligraphy. Different symbols or forms were assigned to different things (people, dates, traditions, songs, etc) and then it was over. The teen turned the page and found a list of people and their ages listed to the side. Alec (46), Idania (42), Dominique (26), Adrian (24), Flynn (20), Annelise (11), Colin (2) and Chloé (2). In the next page, the names repeated themselves, along with a description of the person and everything Lance seemed to remember about them.

Keith was reading about how Annelise liked organising debates between the family members when a croaky voice shook him out of his easiness.

"What are you doing?" Lance asked as he rubbed his eyes. Keith jumped from the seat as if he had a rocket on his ass and let the notebook fall on the desk, blue eyes following it as it crashed against the surface.

"I'm really sorry I just..., found it there and I started reading. I know I shouldn't have..." he started, already hating himself and knowing that Lance was going to hate him even more, watching as his teammate sat on the bed slowly, still sleepy.

"Don't worry. It's not like it is my diary," Lance laughed, getting up with a groan and walking towards him, eyeing the still on the open notebook. "Who did you get to?" he asked, without looking at Keith.

He took his time before answering, gulping and taking a deep breath, not knowing if he had to take Lance's words seriously or if he was just playing along to hurt him later.

"Annelise," he answered, after a few seconds, and Lance smiled as he nodded proudly.

"She's a smartass, just like Flynn. They are the only ones that don't fear to talk back to my mother," Lance told him. "A little while ago she told me she wanted to be a lawyer when she grew up, and she really likes telling the family everything new she learnt when we spend the summer at Havana with my grandparents."

There was another awkward (at least for Keith) silence, as Lance just looked into the notebook and smiled fondly, while the red paladin just waited to be scolded for nosing in other people's business. But the scowl never came.

"Why did you tell me all that?" he asked, and Lance shrugged, still not looking at him.

"I miss my family, and somehow talking about them makes me feel closer to them," he answered. "Besides, you're not being half of the ass you used to be, so I guesses we could try to be friends, again, and what better thing to do to make friends than talk about your lives?" he kept going, and Keith had to convince himself that the red thing in Lance's cheeks wasn't a blush.

"Oh. That's nice," he replied. And there was another silence until Lance cleared his throat.

"How's your family? Are you many?" he asked, and Keith gulped.

"I'm an orphan, actually," he answered, and Lance was mentally slamming his head against the wall. Of course, he had to go and ask that question to an orphan, he was just that lucky. Ariela would call him _yeta_. "But Shiro's like my brother, so..." Keith added, and Lance sighed.

"So that's how you knew him before all of this," he said in almost a whisper, and the other teen nodded. "How did you two meet?"

"One of the foster homes I lived in also offered a temporal stay to Garrison foreign students. Shiro couldn't afford travelling back and forth from the United States to Brazil for just a few days when the Garrison sent everyone home, so he stayed there," he explained. "He was the one to hook me up with this whole space-pilot thing."

"That's a cute story wait," Lance said in a run, before looking at Keith with a shocked face. "Why would Shiro travel to Brazil? Isn't he from Japan?" and the shock increased when Keith shook his head.

"No, he's Brazilian," he answered. It was like Keith had just explained a really important part of a suspense movie, pieces suddenly falling into place.

" _¡Con razón Ariela estaba tan babosa con él!¡Shiro también es medio cazuelero para andar metiéndose con una argentina!_!" Lance exclaimed as if Keith was able to understand him, while the only thing that he could make out of the Spanish rant (that made Lance sound so fucking hot, he must add) were their teammate's names.

"What?" Keith asked once Lance shut up, but the teen just brushed it off with a gesture of his hand.

"I think we should go to the kitchen. They must already be having breakfast," the blue paladin said, instead of explaining himself. "You could have woken me up, you know?" he asked, and like that he was gone, walking through the hallway as if he hadn't just said that they could have woken up like a cheesy couple on a lazy Sunday and... Oh, no. There was Keith's mind, doing stuff it shouldn't again.

# >>>

Pidge appeared, surprisingly followed by Sugey who had a bright smile on her face that indicated something good had happened, when they were about to go looking for her. Allura explained what their exact plan was (practising and freeing planets from galran control until they were capable of killing Zarkon off) and Shiro and Coran went with her to the control deck to check on the list of planets that had priority to be freed, be it because they used to be Altean allies or be it because they had some important material or knowledge the rest of them needed.

Needless to say that the rest of the paladins and the two grigkeans hit the training deck. Needless to say that Lance was being cocky about being able to beat Ariela and Nallely challenged him. Needless to say, she won, taking his pride as an advantage to smash him against the floor and make him beg for mercy as Ariela chanted "DIE! DIE! DIE!" over and over again.

"This is the only training you get? You don't have a teacher or anything?" Nallely asked when they were taking a break, covered in sweat and new bruises.

"Oh, no. There are several different training programs uploaded to the system, and most of us already had experience in combat. Just..., not in real ones," Ariela answered, before sipping more water from her package.

"Did they train you to be warriors on your planet?" Sugey asked with curious eyes.

"No, well, yeah," Hunk started. "The four of us and Shiro signed up in a school that taught you how to be a space pilot, and Ariela is just shady," he explained, and the woman gave a bright smile with closed eyes to the two grigkeans, making Sugey laugh.

"Our planet is pretty big, and there aren't that many people that want to be a soldier," Keith added.

"How big is your planet?" the youngest asked.

"Well, it holds seven billion people and there's still space," Pidge said, shrugging, and Ariela made a face that represented she wasn't so sure about that.

"But if your planet is at war with the Galra Empire, why don't they concentrate on raising soldiers?" Nallely asked, and Lance shook his head.

"We are not at war with the Empire. At least not yet. In our planet they don't know about there being life in space," he explained. "It would be great if we could warn them, but we can't contact with them, as the Castle hasn't had a previous contact established with some Earth system."

"Actually..." Pidge started, and all eyes turned to her questioningly, as Sugey's eyes brightened up and she clapped her hands together.

"You are going to tell them?" she asked.

"Please don't be mad at me," Pidge told Ariela, and the woman frowned harder.

"Why would I be mad at you? What did you do?" she asked.

"Well... As you know, my computers are all homemade, which doesn't give them a real connection to Earth. And a week ago or so I was looking for you in your bedroom and I found your computer," the girl started.

"I knew something was missing!" Ariela exclaimed, and Lance put his hand over her mouth to shut her up.

"That's the part I'm sorry about. The thing is that I took it and I think that I can manage to make the Castle able to contact Earth. Basically, the Castle's signals expand through all of the universe, so if I can manage to use it with your computer it would be as if you were using it at Lance's house."

A long silence fell upon the group, as the paladins slowly processed what she had just said. Lance was the first one to speak.

"That means that, if you manage to do that, we will be able to talk to our families?" he asked, and Pidge nodded.

"We can even watch Netflix if everything goes as I planned," Pidge answered, and three of the four looked so _relieved_ it make Keith envy them slightly; having someone who they yearned to call was not something that happened to him. After all, the two people he had important feelings about where in that castle with him.

"With such good news I barely care about you stealing my computer," Ariela laughed, as she rubbed her face in excitement.

"Yeah. I just hope for your good that you didn't find Ariela's "secret" porn stash," Lance said, laughing too, and the woman got red like a tomato before punching him hard on the shoulder and swearing she didn't have a porn stash on her computer.

It turns out that Sugey and Pidge had crashed ways as the older made her way to the control deck, where she had been hiding and working on the computer and Castle's wiring (causing the lights to go off and music suddenly start playing) , and as the grigkean was a curious little _ish_ , she had blackmailed Pidge into letting her in and explaining to her what she was doing. Surprisingly for the human, Sugey had picked up on the information and technical terms as fast as lightning and had even pointed out some errors in Pidge's calculations.

Thanks to her she was a step closer to managing this.

The second they knew, they had decided they needed to tell Shiro and the alteans the good news, so they left behind their training equipment and marched towards the control deck, wearing wide smiles on their faces.

None of them had ever seen Shiro so happy until he heard Lance say that he would be able to talk to his family. His eyes had lit up and a wide smile had brightened his face, before he bit his lip and buried his face in his hands, crying softly.

It was a shock for all of them, seeing their leader crying out of happiness like this, but Ariela got near him and hugged him, with a soft smile, the man hugging her back almost immediately as she started to slightly sway them both from side to side.

"You're going to see your family again," she repeated, and Shiro let out a happy and shaky breath, before laughing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -¡Con razón Ariela estaba tan babosa con él!¡Shiro también es medio cazuelero para andar metiéndose con una argentina!: Now I get why Ariela was so crazy over him! Shiro is a masochist for messing with an argentian, though!
> 
> -Yeta: It is an Argentinian word for someone that has really bad luck. When that bad luck affects other's, the person is called _mufa_. Example: If you fall down and break your leg, you're _yeta_. If you say that someone is going to be okay and they break their leg, you're a _mufa_
> 
> I'm "Team Protect Shiro At All Costs" and I am totally shameless about this.
> 
> Someone please tell Keith Lance doesn't hate him, btw.
> 
> And also tell Nallely that Ariela is a little shit and she shouldn't be trusted. Allura will know soon or later.


	21. [NOT UPDATED]

The bad thing about outbursts of emotion is that the emotion tends to face away and even turn the other way if it isn't fed with more.

So, when a whole month passed and there was not a progress on Pidge's mission to connect with Earth, the paladins started to get a little bit nervous. And when the girl told them that she was having a little inconvenient she couldn't fix yet, it was as if their hopes weighted a tonne and were suddenly dropped to the ground; they all thought that (being them and having their luck) that was it. There wouldn't be a contacting their families.

Lance was the most affected one. If he suffered back at the Garrison, not being able to see them five days a week, imagine what it was like for him not seeing them three months. He was miserable, and Ariela noticed it at the right beginning and asked the rest of the team to be even friendlier with him. She didn't know if a sixth sense that helped her feel and exactly know other people's emotions was included in the whole malteian-genes-package, but whatever it was this new thing she had was working at full power, letting her feeling Lance's sadness and homesickness as if it was her own. And yes, she still cried herself asleep some nights or in the shower, thinking of how her friends were probably looking for her madly, or what her (Lance's family and her aunt) family was thinking had happened to her, after that mysterious phone call she had made to Idania.

The other one that was being deeply affected by Lance's misery was Keith, being in the same situation as his big sister, feeling the dark emotions that were affecting his teammate. And he had to do something because it didn't matter that Lance hated him when he was feeling so down. Keith was still crushing on him, and he wanted to see him happy.

_I miss my family, and somehow talking about them makes me feel closer to them_ Lance had told him, and he was going to use that little piece of information in his favour.

"Could you tell me more about your family?"

Lance was in the small individual bathroom of his bedroom, putting moisturizer on his face slowly (it was kind of a therapeutic thing for him, rubbing circles on his face slowly with just the right amount of pressure), when Keith let his weight drop against the door frame and looked at Lance's eyes reflection with an emotionless face. The blue paladin frowned and straightened his back.

"What?" he asked, without turning towards the other teen, preferring looking at his reflection.

"I..." Keith started, panicking slightly when he realised that he didn't have a proper excuse, but calming down when he remembered that dirty card he could pull off in his favour. "I never had a real family, and listening to you talk about yours... It makes me feel calm," he answered, acting the shame but the blush being real.

Lance's eyes opened widely and he finally turned to watch the other teen, a mix of empathy and sweetness covering his eyes.

"Get on the bed, I'll be with you in a minute to talk until your ears fall," he smiled widely, Keith's stomach doing a flip when he saw how the white teeth looked so perfect in contrast with the boy's tanned skin. He returned the smile with a much softer one, but Lance seemed satisfied as he turned around again to keep going with his beauty treatment.

Five minutes of stiffly lying on the other's bed, covered by the blankets and trying not to let his mind drift away in the other's delicious scent that was drowning him in there, Lance appeared in his pyjamas. He rapidly laid down next to Keith and looked at him questioningly, and then the other nodded and Lance wrapped his arms around him, cuddling him close.

"What would you like to know about my family?" he asked calmly, and Keith pouted slightly as he thought.

"How did your parents meet?" was his answer after a few seconds of silence, but he immediately regretted it when the teen's eyes turned a little bit sad and nostalgic.

"My dad and my mum were neighbours. They knew each other they whole lives, and they got married really young when my mum got pregnant with my first brother when she was sixteen," he answered.

"It must have been really hard for them," Keith said, and Lance just shrugged.

"They loved each other. My dad wasn't going to leave her, and my mum didn't actually want to pursue a career, so there wasn't much conflict," he explained calmly, before biting his lip doubtingly. Telling Kieth would do no harm, right? "It was all good until he died."

Both Keith's ears and head perked up at that sentence, violet eyes looking into Lance's blue ones, wide in surprise.

"I thought that your dad was still alive..., Alec," he started, but Lance cut him short with a slow shake of his head.

"My dad died when I was about to turn two years old. Alec is my mother's husband and my younger sibling's father," he explained. "My mother worked at the family's hotel, and he liked staying there to get away from the important-business-person life. He was kind of a family friend and when my father died he took a few weeks off to go to Havana and help my family," he explained.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't know," Keith said. There was a pause and he hugged Lance closer. "So he's Annalise's, Colin's and Chloé's father," he said, and the blue paladin nodded. And just when Keith thought he was going to start crying, Lance snorted and started laughing.

"Jesus. We used to hate that guy," he admitted, with a wide smile.

"Why?" Keith frowned.

"Well, my older siblings hated him, I was about four years old, so I followed their every step. Our dad had died and out of nowhere, this _gringo_ appeared to try and take his place, flirting with our mother and taking us shopping and inviting us to his house... It was a war for my mum's affection. The most savage one was Flynn, my older sister. She would make Alec feel guilty at least thrice a week," he answered.

"But he was nice?" the red paladin asked.

"Nice? He was a fucking saint. My father and he were really similar, you know? Both really good people, head over hills for my mum, good with children..." Lance started, before looking down. "It was just that we saw him marrying mum as her forgetting about our dad," he explained.

"And how did he get you to accept him?" Lance smiled at the question.

"I was five years old. He took the four of us to the cinema like he did every Sunday, but we went without my mum because he wanted to talk with us. We watched the movie, we ate and when we were having dessert he told us that he really loved our mother and that he would do anything to make her happy, and he wanted to ask for our permission to marry her," Lance started, before laughing nervously. "I remember that there was this big silence and then Flynn said: We will let you, but you have to know that you will never be our dad. He looked destroyed, but nodded and thanked us. And then..."

The air suddenly was escaping Lance's lungs, as he remembered how he had reached out and tugged at Alec's blue shirt, and he had looked at him with a smile before kneeling in front of him. _What is it champ?_. Five-year-old Lance was fidgeting slightly, but he still looked at the man's grey eyes with no hesitation. _You have to ask for permission to my dad too_ he had told the man.

"I'm probably going to regret saying this, but you were the sweetest five-year-old boy I ever heard about," Keith laughed against him.

"I know. I was the one to help my mother choose the dress and everything. Alec organised this huge wedding and even included a memorial for my father and he gave a speech that made us all cry. I didn't remember seeing my mother so happy," he answered.

"And how was it when they had children of their own?" And Lance snorted again.

"The house was a battlefield. Dominique and Flynn avoided Annalise at all costs, and Adrian and I took care of her. It took a lot of talking with my mum for them to understand that they weren't going to be replaced."

And after that, the story-telling went on and on, until they both felt their eyelids get really heavy and just let themselves slowly drift to sleep.

#  \- - - 

Ariela was sitting in her bed, reading, as she couldn't sleep. She had heard Lance talking to Keith in his bedroom and that made her insanely happy (Lance opening up to the guy and actually talking to him like a civilised person instead of just picking up fights) but it also made her want to be with her friends. It was taking every fibre of her being not to unlock her cellphone to look at the pictures of Naza and Benja, hugging her or lifting her in the air. Of course, there were much more, but those two were her best friends.

"Fuck it," she said, as she closed her book and grabbed her cell phone. "It's not as if I won't miss them," she added, trying to hate herself a little bit less for being so weak, as she opened the gallery and looked at the last picture: Nazareth holding the black cat outside of their favourite coffee shop and making a silly face. She couldn't remember if the picture had been taken when they were still dating or it was after they broke up.

Tears started to well in her eyes, as she remembered the lazy Sundays at her apartment, sandwiched between the both of them, Benjamin peppering kisses on her shoulder as Naza played with her hair.

A smashing sound caught her attentions, her first instinct being cleaning her tears away and stand up as if she had been caught doing something inappropriate. She was sure that it had been her enhanced hearing that had allowed her to hear that, so it had to be inside one of the bedrooms. She commanded her door to open and stepped into the dimly lit hallway, just in time Shiro's door opened a two rooms to the left.

"Shiro?" she asked as she speed-walked towards the man's bedroom.

When she got to the door she found Shiro panting and crying on the floor, near to the desk's chair that had fallen to the ground. He was gripping his sleeping shirt with his right hand, as he tried to get himself up with the left one.

"Shiro, what happened?" she asked, running towards the man and kneeling beside him, as she helped him up. His eyes were red and swollen from the crying, and his face was contorted in an expression of sheer terror and sadness.

"They had my mum, Ariela. They were torturing her in front of my whole family," he said in between sobs. She was already hugging him close, counting the seconds of her breathing to try inducing Shiro to imitate them, understanding that he had had a nightmare.

"It's okay, Shiro. She's safe on Earth, they don't even know who she is," she told him, as she rubbed his back and swayed slowly from side to side, trying to avoid the little groan she wanted to let out when the man's arms tightened a little bit too much around her waist, making her back crack once.

"They know about Earth because I lead them there. What makes you think that they won't find my family?" he said, bitterness dripping from his mouth like poison, and Ariela grabbed his face and forced him to look at her.

"They don't even know your real name, Shiro. The place where you dropped is far away from where your family lives. There are more chance's they go after Lance's. Your family is not going to get hurt, I promise," she told him, the pressure of her hands on Shiro's face lessening when she noticed in his eyes that her words actually had an effect on him.

There was a small pause, while he stared at her and continued to try to even his breathing.

"I'm sorry," he said, breaking the silence, letting his head fall and resting it on the woman's shoulder. "I shouldn't have talked to you like that. You were just trying to help," he admitted, and she hugged him.

"It's okay. I have snapped at people trying to help me too. The important thing is that you know that they are safe once the panic is over," Ariela explained to him, and he started to shake his head.

"They won't be safe until I see Zarkon's head rolling across the floor," he said, and the woman felt the environment tense and fill with electricity. She had never imagined Shiro as the kind that can just say things like that.

She had imagined him a different than her.

"Do you want to sleep here or we go to my room?" she asked, but Shiro shook his head again, as he parted from her and started to get up.

"No, I'll... I'll just hit the training deck. I won't be able to sleep tonight, no matter how good of a cuddler you are," he answered with an awkward smile, as he scratched his neck and Ariela pouted as she nodded slowly and got up.

"I'll join you in a few minutes, I just have to change into my sports clothes," she told him as she started to walk to the door.

"I can go alone, Ariela."

"Don't worry, I couldn't sleep either," she replied, still walking, but he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her in. She frowned, noticing how the familiar scent of Shiro started to spice up with anger and something else that screamed violence, making Ariela start to growl lowly in warning, suddenly too aware of how her fangs could pierce through skin.

"I don't need you to babysit me," he told her in a low and raspy voice.

"You are right. You don't need a babysitter, but you need someone to be there with you," she answered, obviously challenging him.

"I can deal with this on my own," he muttered through gritted teeth.

"But I rather you didn't," she answered, imitating his demeanour, and he let go of her arm to give her his back and rub his hair nervously. "You have been dealing with this alone for a whole year and more, Shiro. Why do you refuse so hard whenever I try to help you?" she asked, not caring about her voice being a little bit loud.

He turned around and pointed at her with his index finger as if he was going to accuse her of something.

"I feel weak," he admitted. "And you constantly taking care of me doesn't help. I mean, if I can't deal with my own shitty and damaged brain why would I be able to deal with having to lead the team that has to save the universe?" he asked, jaw clenched and left hand trembling.

"So this is all about your manhood being harmed?"

"It's about me being powerless."

"You escaped confinement in a fucking war base, made it back home from across the universe and now you fly a big-ass robot cat that could blow Earth up in less than ten minutes. Tell me how you can be powerless," she said, speaking at the speed of light and making Shiro's eyes open slightly in surprise. Ariela took a deep breath before continuing, as she hugged herself. "After what happened with Nick I felt powerless too, and you know what I did? I relied on my family, and now I can kill five soldiers in a minute with a broken arm. If you feel powerless you have to grow, Shiro, and you can't do that alone."

The silence that fell was much longer and, surprisingly, awkward. Shiro couldn't remember when the last awkward silence in a conversation with Ariela had been, and it was only making him even more nervous than he already was, not knowing how to respond to what the woman had just said.

"I'll go and get changed," she started, before turning away. "Meet you at the training deck." And with that, she was gone.

#  \- - - 

Nallely woke up first again, and she was walking to the kitchen when she noticed Ariela's door open, so she thought that the woman would be having breakfast too. But, when she didn't find her, the grigkean decided to move it to the training deck, her second option.

And that's the story of how she found Shiro and Ariela training together and fighting over it.

"Come on! That's all you can do?" Shiro asked with laughter, as the woman stopped doing push-ups and let her body drop to the ground. She was on a grey training top and pink sweatpants, sweat glistening on her skin and back rising and falling fastly, as she started to stand up to face the man.

"I don't have a fucking robot arm. You cheated!" she exclaimed, jabbing her finger in Shiro's chest, and she was actually mad.

"Don't be mad just because I can bench press you," he said, laughing, and the woman crossed her arms over her chest.

"You can't bench press me," she said, and the next thing that happened was him bench press the woman, as she started cursing in Spanish, thrashing around and falling on top of the man's stomach, forcing the air out of his lungs.

" _¡Te pasa por langa, pelotudo!_ " she shouted at him, before running to get her bayard. "C'mon, I'll spar your ass off," she said, activating her bayard and forming the two khopesh swords, and just when Nallely thought Shiro was going to tell her to calm down the man smiled crookedly and lit his arm, putting his body into a fighting stance.

"Jesus, are all humans like this?" Nallely asked herself, as she sat down and prepared to watch. 

Boy, was the fight good.

It was something hypnotising to see. Despite being huge, Shiro was really agile, fast to evade Ariela's not so fatal sword arcs and regain his position, before attacking himself. But the woman didn't fall behind either. She was even agiler than the man and flexible (in one point of the fight she did a split to avoid Shiro's punch). Her arms would tremble when blocking the man's arm with her crossed swords, but she still managed to get him off of her all the time. It looked like a fight that would end with a victor, but rather one that would end abruptly because they were both too tired. And in fact, that was what happened. Their movements started to become sloppy, and Ariela rolled on the floor to evade Shiro's foot, but she didn't get up, just like him. He had fallen when he missed the kick, barely reaching to stop the fall with his hands.

They were both panting, not talking to each other, and if it hadn't been for someone clapping suddenly, Ariela would have probably fallen asleep. She hadn't slept at all (excepting for a power nap when Shiro went to look for water, but shh) and the training with Shiro was torture. He was kind of a sadist and masochist at the same time.

"That was really pleasing to the sight," Nallely commented, as she neared them holding two packs of water in her right hand and towels on the left.

"Can you just finish him off for me?" the woman asked jokingly, as she reached out and caught the towel that had been thrown at her.

"I never imagined you would hold on that long," Shiro admitted, as he grabbed one of the water packs and started seeping greedily. The woman turned to her side and looked at him, still panting, before raising her middle finger.

She dropped her arm to the ground, before bringing her right hand up to brush her bangs off of her face, panting and looking at the ceiling before closing her eyes. And, Jesus, Shiro hated himself for feeling the blush creeping up his face and feeling all warm, not being able to avoid that she _looked like sex_ in that exact moment. Sweatpants low on her hips, hair messy, skin red, breath ragged and sweat running down her body. The fact that she opened her eyes and looked at him, cheeks flushed and irises a ring of gold around dilated pupils because of the adrenaline, didn't help.

"Next time we do this, I'm going to whoop your ass," she deadpanned, and Shiro closed his eyes and thought of disturbing things to kill the boner that was starting to rise. It had been a year and a half since the last time he had gotten laid, so God would forgive him, right? But, the more he tried to hold his imagination back, the more detailed the images of having sex with Ariela became.

"I'm really tired. I think I'm going to sleep," he declared and Nallely looked at his crotch with a quirked eyebrow, judging him ruthlessly for his half hard-on, making his blush spread, even more, almost reaching his chest, as Ariela followed the woman's eyes nad grinned.

"Leave him alone, Nalle. It's normal for guys to get boners when exercising," she told the grigkean and started to get up, completely missing Shiro getting relaxed now that he had an excuse and Nallely confirming that it wasn't because of the exercise.

Ariela opened her mouth to say something, as she dried her face and the back of her neck with the white towel when a weird noise started to come from the roof. It was as if something was stumbling across the air vents, and the trio didn't even hesitate before arming themselves and looking at the ceiling, following the place it came from.

There was a loud crash and suddenly Pidge was falling, screeching loudly as she tried to grip the void around her to stop her fall. Shiro deactivated his arm and caught her, as the girl hugged him tightly and continued to cry.

"Pidge, what the heck?" Ariela asked, looking from the small hole that had been opened on the ceiling to the green paladin, getting on her feet with slightly wobbly legs.

The door opened and Hunk, Coran and Sugey ran into the room, the three of them adopting relieved expressions when they saw Pidge safe and sound, speed lowering and no one spoke until they finally reached her.

"Did you find them?" Coran asked, and the girl shook her head.

"What was she looking for?" Ariela asked, a little bit pissed because they had ignored her.

"Somewhere in the vents there's a cable box that might be the key to contacting Earth, so we sent our smallest soldier on a mission," Hunk smiled widely, clasping a big hand on the girl's tiny shoulder, almost sending her face first to the floor.

"Oh, nice," Ariela said, smiling softly, before frowning. "Why would there be a cable box in the air vents?" she asked in a confused and full-of-feeling whisper, making Hunk shrug.

"How long have you been training?" Allura asked, and both Shiro and Ariela answered at the exact same time.

"All night long." Coran frowned and Pidge snorted.

"You know that by training we mean actual training and not making out right?" the girl said, and when the pair looked at her with confused eyes, she nonchalantly pointed at Shiro's hard-on.

"We didn't make out, for karma's sake," Ariela groaned, and Nallely nodded.

"They were actually fighting. Let's just say that your paladin has a great imagination," she said, smiling crookedly and making Shiro look at her with warning eyes.

"What do you mean with great imagination?" Allura asked, and Nallely wanted to aww at the woman's innocence, but as she opened her mouth to answer her eyes caught Ariela's and the paladin mouthed Allura's name and gave her a wink, openly challenging her to go on.

"Nothing, I was just talking nonsense," she answered, without parting her lilac eyes from golden ones, and the woman smiled at her like the cat that had gotten the cream.

#  \- - - 

Keith refused to open his eyes. He was having the most beautiful dream in the world.

Lance was softly humming a song in Spanish, as he caressed Keith's leg with his cold feet and drew shapes on his back with the soft pads of his fingers. This was what he was afraid of, suddenly starting to become helpless and crave for those lazy mornings even more than before. If he was dreaming about them, he was craving them a lot.

_La soledad se hace carne en mi, y la noche parece un desierto. Pero llegas tú y con tu inmensa luz te declaras dueño de mis sueños._

Dream Keith hugged himself closer to his teammate, Lance's breath hitching and stopping for a second, as the red paladin let himself nuzzle against his chest and got comfortable. A hand slid up to his hair and started caressing it, untangling bed notches on it.

_El viento viste un color azul, parecido a un suspiro del cielo, de sólo saber que te voy a ver y a regalarte todos mis momentos_

Warmth was flooding Keith's chest, infecting his veins and making his whole body tingle with joy as he listened to Lance sing, practically hearing the smile in the boy's voice as he sang sweetly, with a raspy voice that still sounded so good it was not natural. If a Galra ship appeared and nuked the Castle , Keith would die drowning in joy.

Lance's voice suddenly stopped, body tensing around him before sliding off of Keith's grip and standing up, just in time to watch how the door opened to reveal a wrecked Ariela, still a mess after the ruthless training with Shiro, although Lance didn't know that.

"Kieth's in your bed," she said, and Lance narrowed his eyes, before telling her to lower her voice with a gesture of a hand. "I mean, you have been reeking of him this lasts days, but I just imagined you were spending a little bit more time together," the woman followed, voice lowered, and Lance walked towards her.

"Let's talk outside," he said, and with that they were out of the bedroom, the door closing behind them.

Keith opened his eyes, debating how wrong it would be to follow them and spy on their conversation, and then he realised.

_Oh my god_.

The fact that what had just happened was real and not a dream hit him in the head like a brick. Lance cuddling him and singing to him happily, as he caressed his body while Keith refused to get out of that comfortable and warm bed (warm thanks to Lance's body temperature).

"What the fuck?" he asked himself, getting out of the bed as if the sheets burned his skin and _actually_ putting his body in fighting stance. "What the fuck?" he repeated, feeling a dreaded mix of too many feelings settle on different parts of his body, making him want to throw up and think he was going to combust.

#  \- - - 

Hunk was in charge of dinner that night and that made Ariela hum with pleasure, her heightened sense of smell picking up on the spices and other ingredients he was using for cooking, as he happily sang a song that sounded Hawaiian.

"I luna lā i luna. Nā manu o ka lewa. I lalo lua i lalo. Nā pua o ka honua."

She had walked in the kitchen, wanting to join the teen in his happy little bubble, but she didn't have the heart to, the chance of her making that fragile and essential bubble explode holding her back, so she just decided to lean in the kitchen's door frame, watching with a soft smile and arms crossed over her chest how Hunk moved swaying his waist slightly, sometimes doing perfectly measured movements with his arms when he didn't hold anything on his hands.

A hand rested on her shoulder, making her jump in surprise, quickly picking up on the other scent that the cooking had hidden as she turned around to face a blushing Shiro.

"Hey," she smiled, as she uncrossed her arms.

"I just wanted to apologise again, for last night. I was really rude and you were just trying to help me," Shiro said, going straight to the point, as he put his hands in his pant's pockets and looked to the floor. "But I can't help feeling like I'm a little child that won't survive if you stop taking care of him. I want to be able to be stable without you," he explained, and Ariela nodded in understanding.

"The problem is, Shiro, that you are expecting one whole year of brutal damage to be just piled under the carpet and forgotten about. That can't be. Recovering is a process, and I just want to walk you through it. If you take care of yourself properly, you won't need me soon enough," and yes, that was a white lie, but Shiro couldn't know that, right?

"Really? It's just I don't like depending on someone for my recovery," he admitted, rubbing his left arm and still avoiding the woman's eyes.

"Think of you as and almost dying flower. You need water and sunlight. I'm the sunlight because people always tell me I'm a ray of sunshine," Ariela said, smiling charmingly and making Shiro chuckle slightly.

"So I'm a delicate flower. Yeah, that definitely helps," he laughed awkwardly, blushing harder as he finally rose his sight to meet Ariela's golden eyes, which turned white when she rolled them.

"You are too hard to please, captain," she said, not really meaning it, and Shiro didn't turn redder because he didn't have more blood to do so. It was really hard to look at someone in the face when you had had kind of (totally) erotic thoughts about them in the shower. Like, _really_ hard. Especially when that person was Ariela, who talked with him with so much easiness, not getting away despite being two inches away from each other, and called him _captain_ in a way that sounded (at least after the shower he had had) hell-level-sinful. 

There was a pause in which she looked at the man with unreadable eyes. The only thing he could make out of the gold was that she was suspecting something, analysing, but that was it.

"Okay, give me a sec. I can think of a more manly metaphor," she said, holding her hands up. "You are like a _lion_ that was harmed in battle, and the rest of your pack has to nurse you and bring you food and lick your wounds or you'll die," she said, speaking slowly as if she was unsure of her words.

Had Shiro suddenly turned to his fourteen-year-old self suddenly, wanting to bang his head on the wall when he heard the woman say "and lick your wounds" and images of her tongue running through his scars popped up in his mind like an annoying advert in a computer, with loud music and no ex to click out of it, blocking your entire view? Damn it, he thought he had left that behind in the shower.

"Are you okay, Shiro? You're really red. Please tell me you didn't overwork yourself," she begged, signalling the blush that covered his face, ears, neck _and_ chest, just that Ariela couldn't see it.

"I think I'll skip dinner, I'm not feeling really good," he said, licking his lips.

"Okay. Want me to go to your room after dinner? Or you'll be able to sleep just fine?" she asked. Shiro wanted to die.

"I'll let you know," he said, already starting to step back.

"Oh! I'll bring you food to your bedroom. You need to eat a lot after last night," she told him, and he nodded, thinking of how he could use the excuse that Ariela would be going to his bedroom at a random time to push the thoughts that had been haunting him since that morning out of his mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -¡Te pasa por langa, pelotudo!: That's what you get for show-off, dumbass!
> 
> -La soledad se hace carne en mi y la noche parece un desierto. Pero llegas tu y con tu inmensa luz te declaras dueño de mis sueños. El viento viste un color azul, parecido a un suspiro del cielo, de sólo saber que te voy a ver y a regalarte todos mis momentos: Loneliness is becoming usual in me (like flesh), and night looks like a desert; but you come here with your immense light and you declare yourself the owner of my dreams. Time is wearing a blue colour, similar to a sky's sigh, just to know that I'll see you and to give you all my moments. (This song is "La llave", by Abel Pintos. It's really pretty, if you want to listen to it I really recomend it)
> 
> The song Hunk is singing is "Ke Ao Nani". It's really sweet and I love it.
> 
> A.N: I'm sorry for torturing Shiro this way.


	22. [NOT UPDATED]

Yes, Lance had gone looking for him when Keith hadn't shown up in his bedroom that night and yes, he had refused to open the door or speak to the other paladin completely, curled up in a ball in his bed while listening to Lance ask if he was okay, voice starting to get worried as time passed and he didn't answer.

It was just that he didn't want to see Lance if it wasn't necessary, and he had been sleeping really well lately, so pulling an all nighter didn't seem like a bad thing to do. He couldn't face the blue paladin until he had figured out what the fuck had happened that morning. Did Lance actually hate him? Or had it been him misreading his behaviour? Because let's be realistic, it's Keith who we're talking about and that possibility was more than probable. He needed to talk to someone about this whole deal, but there weren't many options: Hunk was definitely out, being Lance's BFF, Pidge was a little shit, Ariela was Lance's sister, Allura wouldn't have any idea of anything and Kieth didn't think Coran would be any different. The only person left was Shiro, and that made Keith bite his lip doubtingly. His relationship with Shiro had _improved_ significantly since the night they started with Ariela's re-bonding plan, but the red paladin wasn't quite sure if it was a good idea just barging into Shiro's bedroom in the middle of the night.

He shrugged as he took a deep breath and stood up, deciding that it couldn't go _that_ wrong. It was late at night, so no one would interrupt them, and Shiro usually was either awake or sleeping with Ariela, so there was no real danger.

He walked out of his bedroom and tried first at Ariela's because they were usually there. Keith thought that there was something about the woman's bedroom that made Shiro feel more comfortable, more at home. It was kind of decorated and so much more personal than their empty rooms. Hunk's was the only one that had something _his_ , it being a rock from the Balmera and a little plant Ariela had bought him at donnybrook in Grigk.

Ariela's bedroom was empty, so he turned around and walked back towards Shiro's.

He was about to command the door to open when he finally paid attention to this thing tingling in the back of his mind, trying to catch his attention. It was a smell, mixed along with Ariela's and Shiro's scent, and although it was barely there, it put Keith's body on edge. The sweet smell was trying to lure him in as if it was the smell of a warm meal guiding someone starving in one of those ridiculous cartoons, where the person in question would float around because of the smell. He hadn't felt identified with that ever, at least not until now.

"Open door," he said.

Shiro had taken his sweet time to go to Ariela's bedroom and ask her if they could sleep together. She, of course, had nodded and walked sleepily behind him, hand clutching at the back of the man's shirt as if she could get lost in the path, eyes half lidded and body heavy. But, the second their heads hit the pillow, they were both lights out. And it was _so_ pleasing to sleep like this.

It was as if a part of her mind was still wide awake, in a state of alert, gathering data of the waking world just in case something happened and she needed to wake up. It was a weird feeling, it had never happened to her, but she continued to sleep. The only information her brain received for a few hours was Shiro moving around until he ended up laying on top of her, nose pressing against her neck and legs tangled together, her body being too warm and her slightly loud purring. She was mildly afraid the sound would wake Shiro up, but she couldn't stop it no matter how much she wanted to, a part of her feeling really content with her actual situation, and the noise seemed to lull the man back to a quiet dream every time he started to squirm.

When the door opened and an outsider scent bursted into the room, it was as if a fire alarm rang loudly in her head, telling her to wake up and defend her place. It was a strong instinct taking over her body, making her eyes snap wide open and the purring turn into a _really_ loud growl, this time waking Shiro up scared and disorientated. Her new side, her _malteian side_ was trying to let the message of "Out of _my_ place" through her growling and her flashing teeth, but her sight caught up with her brain, noticing an aware Keith standing on the still open door and staring at her with surprise, although he seemed to understand her behaviour.

Slowly, the growling lowered its volume till it finally stopped.

"Ariela, what happened?" Shiro asked, sitting up and rubbing his face, with raspy and deep voice, making her purr again.

"I didn't mean to wake you up. It's just Keith entered and... I don't know," she answered, kicking the blankets off of her, as she felt a little bit too hot. "I'm sorry Keith".

"Don't worry," the teen started, getting closer to the bed as slowly as he could, while he awkwardly scratched his neck. "I kind of understand it, in a way," he added, tilting his head from side to side.

"Hey, Keith. Are you okay?" Shiro asked, eyes half-open now that he was calm again, the only two thoughts in his brain being that his breath stank and that there was this really sweet smell he loved and he didn't know where it came from.

"Yeah, I just... I was wondering if I could talk to you?" Keith answered, eyes flickering from the man to Ariela and then back to him as if saying "In private".

"Oh, don't worry. I'll go," Ariela smiled as she slowly got out from the bed, rubbing her neck as if it hurt. "I'll be in my bedroom if you need me," she added, and with that she was gone, turning the lights on and closing the door on her way out.

There were a few seconds of silence, Keith looking at the door without moving, noticing how the sweet smell faded away every second passing. Shiro let himself drop on the bed again, burying his face in the pillow.

"What did you want to talk about at... two in the morning?" he asked, as he lifted his head to check the small digital clock on the wall.

Keith walked towards the bed and sat on the edge, looking at Shiro, biting his lip as he felt a blush starting to creep on his cheeks. His ears were stuck to his head in embarrassment and he was regretting having come here, but what had been done couldn't be undone. Shiro was awake and waiting for him to suck his shame up and speak.

"I think that Lance doesn't actually hate me," Keith started, catching the man's interest. In a second he was sitting by his side and looking at him with all of his attention, smiling as Keith described what had happened that morning.

"And when I opened my eyes they were gone. It took me a while to realise it had actually happened," he finished, clenching and unclenching his hands on his lap, actively avoiding Shiro's gaze.

"Wait a minute," Shiro said, making Keith look at him, ears straight in alert. "You didn't actually see any of it? Like, you actually opened your eyes once they were gone?" he asked, and Keith nodded. Shiro's eyes became a little bit unsure, as he bit his cheek while thinking. "Couldn't that be that you actually dreamt it?" he asked, and it was as if Keith's world came crashing down.

"What?"

"I mean," he started, straightening his back as he scratched the back of his neck. "You were so sure it was a dream, and... Maybe when you woke up he had gone away some time ago and you actually dreamt it, but it fitted so well with your dream that the chance it was real wasn't that low," Shiro explained himself, and Keith's eyes widened in surprise and sudden realisation.

There was a long pause before Keith let out a long and sad sigh, letting his face drop in his hands.

"I'm such an idiot," he said, and Shiro was immediately giving him a tight side-hug.

"Don't say that. There are chances that I'm completely wrong and you are actually right. I just don't want you to get your hopes really high and get crashed to the ground when Lance flirts with some alien on the next planet we land on," he explained himself. "Remember what it did to you when he went away with Nyma?" he asked, and when Keith had thought his heart couldn't sink lower he had been so wrong.

"I'm getting my hopes too high. You're right. That guy's like the straightest I've ever known," he sighed again, and Shiro chuckled awkwardly. "I just wish I was just as lucky as you are," he said.

"Keith," Shiro started with serious voice. "I was abducted and tortured. By purple furries," he said, and the younger one shrugged.

"Yeah, but you still managed to get Ariela," Keith said, and the man tensed. "Oh, c'mon. It's so obvious you really like her," he kept pushing.

"I don't like her," Shiro said, sounding like a seven-year-old.

"All I'm going to say is that I came looking for you when you were taking your shower and that the bathrooms are the complete opposite from soundproof," Keith deadpanned, turning around just to catch how Shiro turned red like his robot, scar blending in with his blush, as he seemed to recalculate everything he had just heard with wide open eyes.

"Okay. In my excuse yeah, she's really hot and I haven't gotten laid in more than a year and a half. I want to see how _you_ end up with Lance panting and groaning next to you, all messed up," the man started, standing up.

"I didn't say I blamed you. I don't need to be straight to know that she is really pretty," Keith said, trying to push the image of Lance Shiro had just described out of his head.

"Yeah, she is. And also she is a really nice person, and probably there's so much more I don't know about her and it would be great to know her more, but as _friends_ hard," Keith said, looking at the man dead in the eyes. "How much do you know about her, anyways?" Shiro sat by his side again, rubbing his chin as he thought.

"There was this night in Menosfor. We both got drunk and she opened up a lot, but I'm not exactly fluent in Spanish, you know?" he started. "But when she finally got to speak English again she told me that her real family had kicked her out when she was young, because of her sexuality. Then I remember bits and pieces: where she lives, her friend's names, her favourite colour," he finished.

"You know more about her than I know about Lance and I feel really lame," Keith said. "Wait. You were both drunk and you didn't kiss? How long have you had the hots for her?" 

Shiro had never seen Keith as an annoying younger brother more in his life than that exact second, mischievous grin on his face, eyes wide in expectancy and so satisfied that he was making his older brother blush and flustered.

"I mean, I've always thought she was pretty. But that day, after we found her underground... I actually never believed that she would be capable of defeating the Galra until I saw the dead soldiers and knew that she had beaten them with a broken arm. Suddenly, knowing that a woman can easily kill me is kind of a turn on, you know?" he said, laughing nervously. "That night I was just rambling about what I would do when we got back home and she grabbed my face and said something and I was so sure I was going to kiss her, but then Pidge threw herself in the middle of us," he finished with a disappointed look and Keith started to laugh.

"Such a cockblocker," he said.

"What do you know about Lance? I mean, I know you've liked him ever since he shot Sendak, so you've had quite a time to learn about him," Shiro asked, already resigned to give up his sleep and just talk with Keith all night long. After all, he had been sleeping quite well lately.

"Before changing? Not much. But after? A lot. I haven't told you, but we actually have been following yours and Ariela's examples. I've had nightmares every night ever since I turned like this and I used to go to Hunk, but one night I couldn't reach him and Ariela was with you and you still hated looking at me and Pidge was missing, so I went to Lance," he started, and Shiro let his head fall to rest on the red paladin's shoulder.

"I'm so sorry about that Keith. I swear I still love you like I used to. You're still my little snarky brother," he said, with a soft smile, and Keith let his head rest on top of Shiro's.

"I know. Anyway, he was a total sweetheart and he treated me so well! And he's been much more patient with me lately," he finished.

"Well, I think it's just because he knows what it's like to be different. You know? Discriminated," the man commented, and when Keith looked at him with a frown he explained himself. "Ariela told me that he's Cuban and that he moved to The States when he was six. Usually, Americans don't like immigrants," he explained.

"He told me a lot about his family. And he let me read this kind of diary... He writes everything he remembers form Earth so he won't forget," and Keith wanted to slap himself for smiling like a fan in love, but he kind of was.

"He's much deeper and complex than he lets us see, it was obvious."

There was another long pause, and this one was so peaceful that Keith regretted breaking the silence.

"Can I stay tonight? I rejected Lance because I couldn't even look at him so I'm kind of alone," he asked, and Shiro nodded. 

"Yes. If you don't, I'll be alone too. Ariela's probably dead in her bed right now. You should listen to all the stuff she says in dreams, dude," he said, and then proceeded to tell Keith about them.

#  \- - - 

"Where's Ariela?" Sugey asked as she bounced on her chair in the kitchen while looking at the clock. It was time to go and start training but the woman was nowhere to be seen.

Just like if God had sent him to answer the girl's question, the kitchen door opened and Lance walked in, looking a little bit down and smelling slightly like... it was like a mix of roses and chocolate, a dense smell that was still attracting. It was the same smell that Keith had noticed on Shiro's bedroom last night.

"Ariela's not feeling good today. She had a fever and pain neck when I checked on her," he declared, dropping tiredly on a chair. Hunk put a hand on his shoulder.

"You okay, man?" he asked, and Lance shook his head.

"I didn't sleep well last night," he answered, before stealing bread from his friend's plate and eating it slowly.

The training that day was a little bit off, no one's mind was actually on what they were doing with their body as they ran through an obstacle track, stumbling over stuff and crashing against walls and not being able to catch ropes on time, falling face first to the floor. Keith was too busy thinking about Lance, Lance was too busy thinking about Keith and Ariela. Shiro noticed that he had gotten used to sleeping "a lot" as not sleeping last night was getting the best of him. Pidge was mentally going over her plan to contact Earth over and over again and Hunk was worried worrying about everyone else, as he did so that his own homesickness wouldn't catch him. Worrying about others to deny oneself seemed to be a tactic they all dominated in that Castle.

It wasn't until after lunch that they decided to check on Ariela. Coran was following suit behind Lance, and Shiro walked by his side, carrying some Altean medical stuff the man had insisted on taking with him, just in case the woman was sick.

Now, none of them had the same heightened senses Ariela or Keith had, but when they reached the woman's bedroom door, the smell was so intense they could perceive it perfectly as if someone had emptied a bottle of perfume in the hallway. Soft panting and whining could be heard from inside, and it made Lance stop dead in his tracks, before indicating the other two to wait for him.

"Sis, is everything alright?" he asked, and when there was no answer, he commanded the door open, immediately rushing towards Ariela.

She was a mess in the bed, sheets tangled around her body as she thrashed around, clutching her neck and crying softly, like a kid that was sick. She looked feverish, eyes glassy and body flushed.

"It hurts a lot, Lance," she cried the second he stepped into the bedroom. Shiro and Coran followed fast after him, Shiro's eyes widening and worry washing over him when he saw the woman like that.

"What hurts?" he asked, and the woman took her hands off of her neck, showing him how both sides were really swollen. They soon noticed that her wrists and thighs were like that too, just like the back of her ears. 

"It really hurts," she sobbed, closing her eyes and curling herself into a trembling ball. "I feel awful, I want to throw up," she cried, and Lance sat on the bed, pulling the woman's head to rest on his lap, as he touched the swollen wrists with cold fingers, making her sigh.

"What is going on?" he asked, looking at Coran with scared eyes, but the man didn't seem to know more than he did.

"Hey, how's..." Keith asked, coming from the hallway, but he stopped himself and covered his nose with the sleeve of his jacket, retreating a few steps. "Jesus christ, what is that smell?" he asked, exasperated for not knowing.

"I don't know but I hate it!" Ariela screamed, slamming her fist in the mattress, as she sobbed louder.

"Could it be something related to Malteia's poisonous air?" Shiro asked as he brushed the bangs away from the woman's face, making her sigh again when cool metal touched her burning skin.

"I don't think so, but it might be something from Malteian biology," Coran said, opening the box that he had made Shiro carry. "We'll give her some morphine to calm the pain for now, so we can call to Menosfor and talk to that stupid Malteian," he said, as he prepared an injection.

Ariela started to shake her head.

"She's afraid of needles," Lance said, continuing to massage the swollen wrists, thing that seemed to help a lot.

"Then I'm going to need you to hold her down," Coran said nonchalantly, and Ariela tried to squirm away, but Lance had already grabbed her arm. "Shiro, watch the legs," the Altean told him, as the woman started kicking around.

"I don't want to! Leave me alone!" she screamed, crying louder when she saw the needle piercing through the skin of her left arm, being held by Shiro's metal arm, as he sat on her legs.

"The morphine will take half an hour to make effect. I say someone stays with her while we contact with Menosfor and find out what the quiznack is going on," Coran said, as he stood up, and Lance opened his mouth to say he would be the one staying when Ariela grabbed Shiro's hand.

"Please don't leave," she told him with teary eyes, and Shiro's eyes opened wide, the words catching Keith's attention and making his ears perk up as he smiled in amusement.

"C'mon. The sooner we find out what this is the sooner we'll be able to help her," Keith said, getting near and grabbing Lance's shirt to pull him away, totally seeing the chance. The blue paladin let himself be carried away, without letting his eyes off of Ariela.

"Take care of her," he said, before walking away.

#  \- - - 

"So, how's Ariela?" Allura asked as the trio walked past the common area to pick them up.

"Not good. We're going to call Menosfor to see if Anferum knows what is wrong with her," Lance grumbled. He didn't trust that guy at all, and he didn't like the idea of him being the only one capable of helping his sister when she was like that.

"What's wrong with her?" Nallely asked, getting up quickly as the rest of the team and following them to the control deck.

"We have no idea, that's why we need to contact Anferum," Keith answered.

In a few minutes, they were all in the control deck, waiting for king Feer to pick up their call. When he did, they saw him sitting in the chair in his office, with a friendly smile on his face on the big screen.

"Paladins of Voltron! How are you doing?" he asked, but then he noticed Allura's serious face.

"We need to talk with Anferum. It's about our Maletian paladin. Do you know where he is?" she asked and the king nodded quickly.

"Yeah, he's right here with me," he answered, indicating his bodyguard to get closer with a gesture of his hand. When the man appeared on the screen, almost everyone felt a wave of anger wash through them.

"What's wrong with the black warrior?" he asked, green eyes wide with curiousness and pupils slitted.

"The black warrior is feeling sick. We don't know what it might be. She's got a fever and parts of her body are really swollen. She said it hurt," Coran answered, stepping closer to the screen.

"And there's a weird sweet smell," Keith added from a side, and Anferum nodded calmly as he closed his eyes.

"How old is she?" he asked.

"Twenty-two," Lance answered in a grumble, not wanting to speak with the man.

"Has she mated yet?" There was a silence.

"I... I don't know if humans mate," Allura answered, before turning to the paladins. "Do you mate?" she asked them.

"Excuse me?" Keith asked.

"We don't mate, so no, Ariela hasn't mated. Why?" Pidge intervened, before turning to explain to her teammates. "Mating is choosing a partner. Like marrying someone but there's something more biological about it," she explained softly.

"Species like mine or even the Galran have really intense breeding instincts, as survival is hard for us because of our environment," Anferum started. "If a Malteian reaches adult age and hasn't mated yet, their scent glands go crazy like..., once every three months, in hopes of attracting potential partners. It's painful because the body works really hard on producing an appealing smell and making it really strong," he finished.

"How do you deal with it?" Coran asked.

"Either you mate or wait through it. It's more painful for some people, in which case we would give them some form of pain-killer," the king answered, and Hunk rose an eyebrow. His sixth sense was telling him those two had a thing and that was why Feer new so much about this.

"What should we do?" Lance asked.

"Keep her cool, make sure she eats. Some loose appetite, but they need to eat or they start to pass out. Um... Massage the scent glands and don't leave her alone with a male," Anferum said, looking really focused on making sure he wasn't forgetting anything.

"What was the last one?" Lance asked.

"Don't leave her alone with a male?" The blue paladin looked at Coran, before mouthing Shiro.

"What can happen if we leave her alone?" Allura asked, catching the exchange between the two and signalling the door to Pidge with a gesture of her head.

"Well, it actually depends on how good smell sense humans have. The scent her glands produce is designed to attract males and make them want to mate with her," Feer answered, and suddenly Pidge was sprinting down the hall.

"How long do this thing last?" Coran asked.

"Usually the longest ones last three days, but that's usually for the ones that aren't so intense. If it's painful for her, it'll last a day and a half, maybe two," Anferum answered. 

"Okay. We will take care of it. Thank you for answering our call," Allura said.

"Anytime. Princess, paladins," and with that the video was out, leaving the control deck in silence.

"Do you think they've kissed or something?" Keith asked, breaking it.

"If this is about the betting pool you started at breakfast shut up, Keith," Hunk said, rubbing his face with his hands. Nallely clicked her tongue before whispering "Men" and getting near Allura.

"Do you think Pidge will manage to stop something from happening between those two? I mean..., she's tiny, and if that smell has the same effect in your species than in hers..." the grigkean started, making her lips go in a thin line.

"You know about this?" Allura asked.

"Not much. If I hadn't listened to that guy explain it I wouldn't have remembered it, but there was a book of different species in my house. Malteians usually go into some sort of trance when they smell someone in that state, that's why it is so effective," she answered.

"This means Ariela's body changed more than we thought it had. I'm going to the library and look for information about Malteians," Coran started, before turning to look at Keith. "And Galras, now that I'm at it. Lance, would you join me?" he asked, and the blue paladin nodded.

"I'm going to see Ariela. Now that you mentioned it, Pidge wouldn't be able to stop Shiro from anything," the princess said, before turning around and walking to the bedroom.

#  \- - - 

Shiro felt like the kid that had been busted doing something wrong and was now waiting for his parents to appear at the principal's office.

He had stayed, just like Ariela had asked him to, sitting on the edge of the bed and massaging her wrists softly like Lance had been doing before going, listening to the woman's cries turn into complaints and then stop. She was looking at the ceiling in that moment, eyes unfocused and skin still too warm, purring loudly in time with Shiro's movements on her wrists. The morphine was slowly working her way into her body, numbing the pain slightly and making her head feel like goo, but deep down she knew it wasn't the morphine that was calming her.

"I'm starting to feel a little bit better," she said, as she slowly sat up, resting her weight on Shiro's side when she finally managed to, and the smell became even stronger. It was making the man's breathing turn a little shallow, a blush creeping over his neck and the memory of when Ariela's face had been so close to him at the party in Menosfor making him think "Kissing her wouldn't be that bad!". He was doomed when he turned his face to look at her and his eyes were caught in Ariela's blown pupil's fixated at his mouth and red cheeks, parted lips looking all too inviting.

Shiro turned the rest of his body along with his face and slid his right hand across the woman's neck making her moan lowly and lean into the touch when the could metal brushed against the swollen gland. He slightly pressed his thumb on her lower lip, hesitantly getting closer and closer.

Ariela didn't move away. In fact, she leant in.

It was a soft press at the beginning, before pulling away and leaning in again, and this time, Shiro pulled her in, as he slid his tongue into her mouth, making her sigh longly against him, as she rested her arm on his shoulder and gripped his shirt, moving along with him. When he pulled away a second time, she sucked his bottom lip in and bit it gently, making him groan and grip her hips, pulling her closer.

The woman slid her left leg over his lap, straddling him. Their brains were swimming in the overstimulation due to Ariela's state. The woman's scent was making Shiro's skin itch, aching to be touched, slowly becoming addicted to the long sighs Ariela would let out. Every piece of her being was suddenly more connected to that instinct that seemed so ancient and that had settled its roots deep down inside her, making her purr in content as she felt the strong muscles twitching under her palms, the scent of the man filling her nostrils (metal, salt and jasmine) fogging her mind.

"Oh god," he moaned, before leaning in again, the kiss turning more heated every second that passed, the smell clouding his mind along with the sensation of Ariela's mouth on his and her nails scraping the skin of his neck. He was too aware of the woman's slim and muscled body pressed flush against his chest.

Shiro had already left all resolve of holding back behind, loving the weight of the woman on his lap and the way they moved in total synch when the door opened and Pidge started screaming as if she had seen two dead bodies. That was the moment he felt like a toddler caught red-handed.

"DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T TOUCH HER! DON'T TOUCH HER!" she continuously screamed, as she ran towards them and started to pull Ariela away from him from the waist. "Jesus christ, you were alone for like fifteen minutes tops! Control yourselves!" she reprimanded them, looking infuriated.

"But Pidge...!" Ariela started, pouting like a small child before falling to the floor in front of Shiro, who was redder than blood and could feel the weight of shame making him sink even more into the mattress. He still wanted to keep kissing the woman, and more, but Pidge's angry eyes stopped him from reaching out for her again.

"But Pidge nothing. Men are banned from your bedroom until you are normal again, did you hear me young lady?" the girl kept shouting as if she was the adult and they were the children, while she pulled from Shiro's shirt to try to make him go away.

"But I want to stay," he said, gripping the side of the bed and finally making the girl's strength completely useless. No matter how much she battled, he didn't move an inch.

"Don't make me go green paladin on your ass, Shiro," the girl threatened, before taking a screwdriver out of her pocket and making the man's eyes open widely, but then Allura appeared in the bedroom.

"You are going to get out of this bedroom or I'll throw you myself to the hallway. You know I can do it. Don't test me," the princess said, stepping towards him with confidence.

Surprisingly, Shiro looked at Ariela and didn't move.

"Oh, geez," Allura said, grabbing him by the ear.

"Auch, auch, auch," the man repeated as the princess dragged him out of the bedroom.

"But I don't want him to go!" Ariela complained, and when Pidge looked at her she was crying crocodile tears.

"I can't believe I'm the most mature person in this bedroom," she mumbled, rubbing her eyes from behind her glasses. Allura walked into the bedroom again, looking suddenly tired.

"You can go, Pidge. I'll stay with her," the princess said, as she picked Ariela up from the floor where she had resigned and accepted the fact that she was not getting what she wanted, and dumped her on the bed again. "You can keep working on contacting Earth."

The girl left with a nod, and once she was outside, the princess locked the door, kind of suspecting Shiro would try to get in again.

The first fifteen minutes went by in silence, Ariela giving her back to Allura like an angry child, but then the morphine finally kicked in and the princess regretted having stayed, as she wondered if there was any way of making her shut up. Listening to her rambling about how Lance was a big idiot because of something Allura didn't get was boring after an hour.

"Don't you have anything else to talk about?" she asked the woman, about to lose her grip. Ariela was inspecting her clothes with curiosity when she spoke.

"I don't know. I'm not good for small talk. You have to ask me something," she explained, mumbling softly, as she rubbed her red pants in a way that made the cloth turn a shade darker, and then rubbed it back to its natural colour, before whispering "Magic."

"Tell me about your life, Ariela. Everything you remember, but don't talk about Lance, I beg you," was Allura's answer. She had sat down in the desk's chair and pulled her hair up in a bun.

"Oh. Well, I was born in CABA, Buenos Aires. I have two sisters, but only the little one likes me. She must be..., fourteen now, but I haven't seen her in seven years. She was seven when I left. I moved with my aunt when my parents kicked me out and that's how I met Lance. I finished high school in the USA and returned to Argentina. University is free there, you know? My longest relationship was for three years and I recently broke up with them, so I'm kind of heartbroken, you know? And I miss them a lot. I also miss my bed and my computer, but Pidge has that one. I want it back."

It was like verbal vomit. It never stopped and it was _fast_ , but Allura managed to pick something up.

"Your parents kicked you out of their house? Why?" she asked, thinking of that as something inconceivable. Ariela nodded, sitting up.

"They kicked me out because I like both men and women. For some people that's not normal and well, my parents thought I was sick and that I was going to make my sisters sick so they sent me to live with my aunt. We haven't talked ever since," she explained.

"It's... It's not normal to like someone from your same gender?" Allura asked, and Ariela snorted.

"I say fuck that. There are several scientific explanations to it. It's not my fault their heads are hard as rock. Even aliens understand. Take Nallely for example. She's head over heels for you and everyone considered it perfectly normal back at Grigk..." the human started, and Allura turned to her with wide eyes.

"What?" she asked, but Ariela ignored her and kept on rambling.

"And I mean it _is_ normal. Have you seen yourself? It's like you are some kind of moon-goddess sent to bless our eyesight and help us in the war with you amazing fighting skills and everything..." she said, and the woman was going to continue, but Allura stood from the chair and covered the mouth with her hand.

"What did you say about Nallely and me?" she asked, before letting the human speak.

"That she's crushing on you, and hard. She told me the night of the party, back at their village. Oh, you two would make such an amazing couple. Space lesbians: saving the universe by day and being all relationship goals at night!" Ariela said. "And Nallely is like super hot. I tell you: if she and Shiro walked past me, I wouldn't know which one to check out."

"So you like Shiro, huh?" Allura asked, still processing everything she had heard about the grigkean.

"Have you seen that piece of beef? He's like the hottest guy alive, and he's kind of sweet when he want's to. _Encima chapa re bien el hijo de puta. Yo pensé que me empotraba contra la pared y PAM, cogíamos_ ," Ariela answered, and Allura didn't know if she should be glad or regret that she didn't catch the last part.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Encima chapa re bien el hijo de puta. Yo pensé que me empotraba contra la pared y PAM, cogíamos: And the son-of-a-bitch kisses so good. I thought he was going to pin me against the wall and BAM, we had sex.


	23. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Heh. I hate myself.

Turns out Allura, somehow, fitted in Ariela's clothes. And that's the story of how the Princess of Altea received a makeover from a drugged alien-human hybrid, looking to play the matchmaker between her and the Grigkean warrior.

"Should I do your makeup?" Ariela asked, from her place on the bed, as Allura kept turning for her.

It had all begun because the paladin wouldn't shut up about how Nallely would react if she saw Allura all dressed up, and the princess _really_ wanted her to shut up, so she had accepted to try on some clothes. Ariela had stumbled to the place where she kept them, before handing Allura black see-through-thigh-highs, a pink tennis skirt and a black-long-sleeved crop top. And, although the princess was a bit bothered at the beginning, she had started blushing while hearing Ariela describe how Nallely kissed at some point on the conversation.

"Nah, I'm gonna mess it up, because I'm high. But... I'm gonna do your hair!" she declared, as she sat again on the bed, patting the mattress next to her to indicate the woman to sit.

"If I don't like Nallely that way, why do you make me dress up like this?" Allura asked, not knowing how to feel on the short (for her) skirt, as she sat next to the woman, who started to braid her hair at an unbelievable speed.

"Oh, if you actually don't want to it's okay. But don't you like it? Knowing that there's someone that can't think straight because of you?" Ariela asked her, chuckling at the not-intended pun, and Allura turned to her frowning slightly, making the other woman shrug. "It's like you have some kind of power on that person, a turn of your neck, a twist of your waist a lean in closer and they are mumbling nonsense because _you are stunning_ ," she explained, and the princess kept quiet to reconsider.

"It must feel great to have people crazy for you like that," Allura said after a minute of silence, and Ariela looked at her purely confused.

"You are not going to tell me that you didn't have some noblemen after you back at the time, aren't you?" she asked, making Allura snort and shrug, looking at the wall with unfocused eyes, as if she was looking at the past, with a nostalgic smile and a mix of sad and happy eyes.

"I don't really know. I had a few wooers when I was in Altea, but I actually couldn't know if it was because of the prince status they would get from me or because they actually liked me," she answered and Ariela pouted, making her smile widely.

"Alteans sounded too pure to worry about shit like that."

"Huh, you have no idea then," Allura commented, again with a little sad face.

# \- - -

Contrary to popular belief, reading was one of Lance's things. Yes, he would rather read a comic book or a play, but he had come top of his class and gotten to the Garrison on a scholarship, after all, so he had to be able to sit his ass for hours and swallow textbooks, which he did.

It had been hard to swallow the smug grin when he noticed Coran's quirking his eyebrow at him after an hour of complete silence. The Altean had taken all the books they had on Malteian and Gran people, splitting into two teams and kind of competing to see who could gather more important information. Lance had made a stop by his bedroom and had picked up a notebook and a pen, and after flipping the necklace Ariela had brought him from Grigk's donnybrook (a white leather cord that was tied to a sapphire square with something carved on a side), he had sat his ass down to study Galras.

At the beginning it was boring, he had to be honest, but after some parts of Keith's behaviour slowly started to be explained, it was as if the textbook swallowed his mind, taking him to this new world.

So far he had learnt that Galras were divided in two different forms: one was if you were female or male, and the other if you were alpha or omega. The second division seemed to be a part of the brain that, depending on what you were, made you react to violence in certain different ways. Alphas were more hotheaded and had the advantage that they tended to be bigger physically, and omegas were patient, making strategies because they physical complexion didn't favour them in battle. That's why only alphas were allowed to be soldiers. Also, he had learnt about Galran mating habits. They could have as many mates as they wanted, but the first would always have a stronger connection, and if they died in disturbing circumstances, the living part could even become crazy because of the loss. It was a really hardcore race.

They kind of had a second language, made out of smells and noises that many other species weren't able to hear, and when Lance looked over to Coran's book, he noticed that Malteians were similar. Suddenly, Ariela being so comfortable with Keith that night back at Grigk kind of had an explanation.

"Wait a minute," Lance said suddenly, making Coran's head snap up. "In which language are this books?"

"Altean, of course," the royal adviser answered.

"Then why can I read them?" he asked. Coran laughed.

"The same way you can understand when I speak. Your mind is connected to the lion's and they are designed to be universal translators," he explained calmly, and Lance nodded, satisfied by the answer but annoyed with himself because he hadn't noticed that aliens spoke English before.

"Did you find something interesting?" he asked, pushing his book apart.

"Well, Malteians are a really complex species. They mate for life and form packs usually before turning adults, so that's why Ariela is going through this. Also, it seems that the females are the ones to fear," he started to explain, and he kind of seemed really content with himself because the indeed had a female Malteian on their team. "They are really aggressive and follow their instincts more. Won't hesitate in killing an enemy if it means protecting something," he finished, and Lance pouted as he thought.

"That explains so much," he whispered, before looking at his own book, looking at a picture that signalled different parts of the brain that did different things. 

Another hour passed, and then the library's door was being punched open by a panicked Allura, looking _totally fine_

"Your sister escaped. I don't know how because she is drugged and can hardly walk straight, but I went to the bathroom for five seconds and she _disappeared_ ," Allura said, between pants.

"Oh, my god, Ariela," Lance groaned, as he stood up from the chair and ran towards the woman, wanting to ask why she was dressed like that. He thought he was going to blurt out some pickup line, but then the image of Keith wearing those same clothes intruded into his mind and the blood rushed _everywhere_

It took the three of them (Coran had joined immediately) a while to find the woman. Although they had peeked into the kitchen, they hadn't spotted her sitting on the floor behind the island, playing with squishy white thingies. They were able to find her when they passed through the kitchen a second time because they heard her crying. Apparently, her brain had related the squishy white things to marshmallows, so she had put several in her mouth and chewed, discovering they tasted like the sole of a shoe (she would say ass, but the taste was no similar). So, please remember she was high, she started crying with her mouth stuffed of the white thingies. That was how the trio found her.

"They were awful, Lance. I don't even know what they're doing in the kitchen," she continued to cry like a toddler, doing gargles with water to take the taste off of her mouth.

"It must have been a near to death experience. Horrible," he said, not amused, rolling his eyes.

Allura was trying so hard not to laugh, and Coran was watching everything with a small smile.

"Hey, what's...?" Nallely's voice was heard, making everyone turn towards her.

The woman was standing alongside Keith, who was covering his nose with a hand. They were both sweaty and a little bit flushed from training, obviously, making Lance's eyes linger on the teen's torso, appreciating the way the material of the shirt stuck to his skin. The Grigkean, on the other hand, could still feel the dead words on the tip of her tongue, as she took in the view of Allura, dressed to take everyone's breath away.

"Oh, this oughtta be good," Ariela laughed, suddenly forgetting about the not-marshmallows as she watched how a blush crept over Nallely's face, as her eyes scanned the princess, who put her hands together on her lap and looked to the floor.

Keith was the one to break the silence.

"Shouldn't she be locked in her bedroom?" he asked, voice muffled by his hand, as he pointed at Ariela with the other. She signalled him "Fuck you".

"She managed to escape, somehow," Allura answered.

"I just said the word unlock and the door did _swooosh_ and I walked away. I got away with... Why was I locked up?" she asked, expression going from smug to confused and forgetful.

"Because you are a potential danger. Now, someone else please take her to her bedroom and stay with her. I don't think would be able to stand it anymore," Allura said, rubbing her face with her hands, and Ariela pouted.

"You can't stand me?" she asked, and Lance thought she would cry again, but then she shrugged. "Okay, your loss," and then she walked away.

"I'll keep an eye on her until we find Sugey. My sister will stay with her then," Nallely said, finally tearing her eyes away from the princess and trotting after the woman. Allura just sighed and walked away, without saying a word.

Keith walked in finally, looking for a glass, and Coran looked at Lance.

"I'm going to do some more research before preparing dinner. Are you coming?" he asked the blue paladin, who would have said yes if it hadn't been because he noticed that if Coran went away, Keith and he would be alone.

"Nah, I'm too tired. I'll continue tomorrow," he said softly, and Coran nodded, before walking away.

Now, he knew that talking wasn't _their thing_ , but he really thought that his relationship with Keith had improved a lot ever since his teammate had appeared in his bedroom days ago. Just when he thought he was done trying to approach Keith for good, he had to go and pull an "I can't sleep and I need you" off. They had argued strongly a week before that. Lance had found Kieth practising his feelings off in the training deck and had tried to make him feel better, explaining to his teammate that he knew what it was like to be different, but Keith had snarled at him and swatted him in a way that, with his new claws, had opened a superficial cut in his chest. Lance had been so mad that night, and he had decided that it was time to stop trying to improve his relationship with Keith once and for all, but then the red paladin had popped up in his bedroom, crying and whining over nightmares, and they had _bonded_ over that a lot.

You could ask anyone in Arizona, and they would tell you that Lance McClain was one of the most selfless people they had ever met, but it was time for him to be selfish. He wasn't willing to let that tiny ray of hope disappear because of a huge cloud of "What the fuck is it now, Kogane?"

"So, how are you?" Lance asked, and Keith choked on the water he was drinking, coughing a lot and almost spitting it out into the sink. He hadn't noticed Lance staying, and he had thought he was alone.

"I'm okay. Fine," he answered, cleaning his mouth with the back of his hand as he turned around, leaning on the counter and looking at Lance, who had his hands in his pockets and looked at his feet.

"Great. I just was worried. Yesterday you didn't come and I didn't know if you had gotten any sleep at all," he answered, without taking his eyes from his sneakers, that were suddenly really interesting. _Come on, Lance. You can do this_. He made himself step slightly closer, and Keith shrugged, putting both of his hands on the counter's border.

"I slept," he stated, and it was a brutal lie. He had spent all night talking with Shiro about anything until the clock had signalled a somewhat decent hour for them to go to the training deck. 

"That's great! Your nightmares went away!" he said, and then he scratched his neck, smiling awkwardly. "I guess you won't need me anymore now," he added, and Keith's eyes widened suddenly, feeling a little bit desperate. He still didn't know how to face Lance, his thoughts being so mixed and not knowing what to believe about the boy, but he wasn't willing to give the nightmare-scarer-cuddles away just because he didn't know where he stood.

"No, no," he shook his head. "I slept with Shiro last night. I still can't do it alone," he said, lifting his eyes slowly from Lance's chest to his eyes, licking his lips awkwardly and regretting his choice of words profusely. Lance frowned, confused and something more that seemed bad at the statement, and Keith cringed internally. He clearly had been happy because Keith wouldn't be bothering him anymore and he had crashed those hopes. Oh, boy, he did hate him.

The blue paladin didn't know if Keith noticed, but he was red as a tomato, the deep blood no longer mixing with the training flush, and it was affecting Lance a lot, along with the messy hair. Also, his lips were glossy from licking them between sentences, and his hips stuck out ever so slightly because of him leaning on the counter. It would be so easy to grab those slim hips and pull him closer and kiss that pouty mouth away.

"Oh," was all Lance managed to say, as he stepped even closer, legs brushing slightly with the other teen's, as he took his eyes away from his lips and nailed them to the wall behind him. But then he felt Keith's gaze on him, and when he looked at him again, he discovered his eyes wandering over his face with an expression he couldn't (or didn't want to) recognise.

Was it him or it was hotter in there?

He could barely hear anything but the blood thrumming in his ears and his own heartbeat, the noise getting louder and louder each second passing, as he considered if he should fuck it all up and kiss him or just be patient and continue to wait and work on the relationship.

"Lance?" Keith asked with a breathy voice, looking at his lips, and the teen thought "Fuck it" as he started to lean in. Keith's body went stiff, not moving, and then... And then...

There was a crash and the ceiling ripped open, a scared to death Pidge coming out of it, screeching, and falling on top of the counter with an awkward and painful smack before starting to curse loudly as she rubbed her back. Lance immediately was checking on her, Keith still leaning on the counter without moving.

He suddenly remembered Shiro telling him about how Pidge had thrown herself in middle of Ariela and him when they had been about to kiss and he had replied with "Such a cockblocker". Such a cockblocker indeed. Well... It wasn't actually cockblocking because _Lance obviously wasn't going to kiss him_

Keith pushed himself off of the counter and ran away, sprinting when he heard Lance's voice calling after him.

# \- - -

This time he actually had to face Lance, as the teen had found him sitting in one of the corridors, still panicking because of whatever had happened in the kitchen. The awkwardness in Lance's posture had made him a little bit nervous, as he rose from the floor, knowing that running away now wouldn't do him any good.

"Keith, I'm sorry if I..., I don't know. Scared you? You know, back in the kitchen," Lance started, scratching his neck. "It's just," he continued, and Keith licked his lips in expectancy when he noticed how Lance _fucking blushed_. "I thought you had an eyelash on your cheek but I wasn't sure."

What?

Keith's mouth opened to reply something, but nothing came out of his mouth for a few seconds, as he was too busy with feeling stupid for having let his hopes rise too high. _Shiro warned you about this, you fucking moron_ he reprimanded himself.

"Oh," he said, before laughing and hoping Lance didn't notice how fake it was. "For a second I thought you were going to kiss me." And then, those words he hated so much left his mouth, just because he was panicking and sure that he wasn't being convincing enough. "No homo, right?"

Lance's smile spread, eyes almost closing, as he clamped a hand on Keith's shoulder and shook him slightly.

"No homo," he replied, before turning around and walking away.

# \- - -

"So..." a voice started from the door to the control deck, scaring Allura. She was looking at the coordinates of Altea, an old picture of her planet showing on the screen, leaving to her imagination the job to discover how messed up it looked after being attacked by Zarkon's troops.

She was still in Ariela's clothes, enjoying being able to slide around the castle on those thigh-highs and the feeling of the skirt lifting when she twirled. But she felt too self-conscious when she turned around and encountered Nallely, who was leaning on the door frame. She was wearing a black tank top and a pair of brown pants that seemed too tight to be comfortable.

After hearing Ariela talk about how hot the woman was for hours, she kind of _needed_ to check her out and... Damn, those were some pretty hot thighs.

"How's Ariela?" the princess asked with a smile, as Nallely pushed herself off the doorframe and neared her.

"Good, being interviewed by my filterless sister," she answered with a sweet smile, and Allura mirrored it. And then there was this long and awkward silence, in which Allura suddenly started questioning every part of her body. Why? Why did she suddenly cared about how she looked? Was it because she knew that Nallely was watching her now?

"So, what do you think about the Castle? Do you like living here?" she asked, desperate to break the awkward silence, and Nallely looked through the massive window on the wall next to them, into space.

"I won't lie to you. I miss my village, my friends, my mum, the forest... But there's something about being here that... It makes me feel important like I'm actually worth something," she answered, shrugging at the end. Allura frowned.

"Everyone's worth something," she said without thinking, and Nallely smiled sadly.

"I disagree with you, but that's a really sweet thought," she replied.

# \- - -

Ariela's weird Malteian thing ended on the third day, but she was too tired to do anything.

The woman had appeared on the kitchen while they were having lunch, on her pyjamas and dragging a blanket thrown over her shoulders as she walked. Her eyes were sunken, with dark circles under them, and she was a little bit paler. Although the morphine had helped a lot with the pain, she had still felt this strange awkwardness all over her body, and an unknown kind of energy that hadn't let her sleep, but hadn't let her actually do stuff, the only option being thrashing around the bed and whining. Also, she hadn't eaten well. All that the women of the Castle had tried to force-feed her had ended up on the toilet of her bathroom because her stomach would do a flip every time something touched her tongue the second day.

It was like being pregnant but without a baby, which was a good thing. Imagine having to be pregnant in the middle of a space war. Ha!

Silence had fallen in the dining room when she had entered, and the first one to break it had been Lance, with a soft "Hey". She hadn't replied, just walked towards him and sat on the empty chair next to her brother, picking on his food and resting her head on his shoulder.

Ariela didn't notice then because she was too tired to care, but Shiro had nailed his eyes on the table the second she had entered the room, eating the rest of his food in complete silence.

He was so ashamed of himself he didn't know how to deal with it. Also the regret, the regret couldn't be left behind. Okay, no, let's rephrase that. He actually didn't regret _kissing_ Ariela (because her kisses were worthy of that "Just right" Pacha meme, from the Emperor's New Groove), he regretted _the sittuation_ the kiss had taken place in. He had completely taken advantage of Ariela in a state she couldn't control herself and he had just thrown his brain out of the window at the moment he needed to think for the both of them. Oh, Jesus. It had taken him a while to realise what he had done because his mind had remained foggy with the sweet scent of chocolate and roses for another half an hour after all that.

All he had done that half and hour had been whining like a little child because he _waanted to go to Ariela_ and stay with her. But then the fog faded away and left him alone with the realisation of how he had acted. Thinking of how the woman would probably feel violated once she could actually realise what he had done made his heart practically fall out of his body. She had opened up to him, told him of what that douchebag had tried to do to her when she was sixteen, then he had had to sit back and watch as another douchebag made his way with her because he couldn't even speak without receiving an electric shock, and now he had gone and kissed her when she wasn't able to consent.

He was a piece of trash.

That was something Keith and him were a lot like. They both swam in self-hatred many times a week. Also, they both trained their feelings away, pretending like it was a healthy way of coping. Remark the word "pretending", please.

So that was what he had done those three days: train and talk to his lion until her ears fell off. Black probably hated him right now, as he could feel her rolling her eyes when he opened his mouth to talk about how guilty he felt.

Also, he had just slept two hours in those three days.

He didn't know if Ariela had some kind of super power or if she actually stayed awake at night, watching out for nightmares that came too close to him in order to scare them away, but sleeping without her had proven to be impossible. At least sleeping without having to wake up in middle of a panic attack, not being able to breathe and feeling like someone was ripping his chest open to pull his heart out. So sleeping was not an option, and now that he had gotten used to sleeping (after... What? Almost four months?) of sleeping at least five hours a night, sleep deprivation was getting the best of him, making him a little bit moody and prone to make bad decisions.

Like setting the gladiator on a level that was too high for him, which ended with the robot beating him unconscious and him finally "sleeping" on the training deck's cold floor.

He was shaken awake by a gentle touch and a voice calling out his name. There was a warm hand on his shoulder and he was hoping so hard it was Ariela that he actually believed it was her.

"Ariela?" he asked, eyes still closed, and the person snorted.

"You wish, man," he answered, and Shiro opened his eyes. His vision slowly focused, to let him appreciate Hunk squatting by him, smiling worriedly as he kept his hand on his shoulder. "What happened? I found you here, passed out," he asked, and Shiro groaned, closing his eyes.

"The gladiator got me. I may have accidentally set it up on a level that was too high for me to handle alone," he said, turning to rest on his back, feeling and remembering the kick on his side that had sent him flying across the room and crashing into a wall, finally knocking him out.

"Do you need to go to the healing pods?" Hunk asked, and Shiro shook his head.

"No, I just want to sleep," he answered, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands.

"Do you want me to take you to Ariela's bedroom? She's there."

There was a long and awkward silence. The man had to make a really big effort on holding himself back from blurting out "Yes".

"I can't go there. She probably hates me now," he answered, finally opening his eyes and looking at Hunk, just in time to catch how the teen smiled as if he couldn't believe what he had just heard.

"I talked to her, Shiro. Yesterday. She told me that you made out and she told me it was great too. She also asked me to force you into cuddle with me last night so you could get some sleep, but I couldn't find you to make you the proposal," Hunk explained, still laughing a little bit.

"She was still drugged, Hunk," Shiro said, sounding like a parent tired of his child talking to him about something.

"I mean it, Shiro. Ariela really worries about you, she considers you a really good friend and she wants to be there for you. She's not mad. If she hasn't come looking for you yet is because she is passed out in her bedroom," Hunk explained to the man slowly, as if it was hard for him to understand (read: Hunk actually thought it was hard for him to understand).

"Really?"

"Just go and speak to her for heaven's sake!" Hunk exclaimed, throwing his hands up to the ceiling, making Shiro snort weakly.

# \- - -

When Shiro opened the door, all the lights were out.

He had managed to have a (not) decent shower and change into his pyjamas, after patching himself up. He had had to cover some superficial cuts, but there was nothing too bad. And now, he was clean and standing in the woman's bedroom.

She was sleeping, sprawled on her bed, half covered by blankets and half not. The sheets had been changed and she had showered, looking a little bit better than that afternoon.

Shiro walked hesitantly towards the bed, and slowly sat on the edge, without tearing his eyes away from the woman, who immediately opened her eyes when she felt the mattress sinking under someone's weight. She had just fallen asleep.

" _Hola,_ " she said to him with a sleepy smile, as she rubbed her left eye.

"How are you feeling?" he asked smiling awkwardly.

"I'm feeling like _bruh_. But I'm much better. How are you feeling?" she asked in return.

"Tired, to be honest," he admitted, before sighing and biting his cheek. "Listen, Ariela, I'm sorry," he said, but she shushed him.

"I don't give a fuck about it, Shiro. It was just a kiss and not one that I hated. Just get in the bed and sleep," she told him, grabbing a fistful of his shirt and pulling him to lay on the space she had just made for him on the bed, in which he laid with a small smile.

"You promise you're not mad?" he asked.

"I pinky promise. Now have sweet dreams, captain," she told him.

Shiro waited just a few seconds, looking at the golden eyes (that looked like worn and rusty gold on that dim lighting, but still contrasted a lot from the woman's face) and searching for something that proved she was lying, but he didn't found it, so he snaked his arms around her waist and nestled his head on her chest, humming when he was able to hear her lazy heartbeat, already feeling his eyelids falling shut.

# \- - -

They woke up at midday with Pidge coming into Ariela's room shouting "I didn't get any sleep cause of yall" while Sugey banged pans against one another. It scared Shiro shitless and made Ariela laugh so hard she almost peed herself. Being woken up with a meme after a whole night of good sleep and cuddles was always a good way to wake up.

It turns out Allura had told everyone to let them sleep until it was lunch time, knowing they were both totally exhausted and needed the rest. So, when Coran announced the food was ready, she sent her best soldiers to the battle.

They ate in their pyjamas, and Shiro immediately ran to his bedroom to change before bonding time with his lion. Ariela just resigned, it wasn't as if Bagheera would be mad at her for not putting actual clothes on.

No, the panther was mad at her because of something else.

The moment she stepped into the hangar, the robot turned to her and growled in a way the woman identified as "playful", tail swishing behind him and starting to circle her once there was space to do so. And Ariela had thought the panther would have been worried about her.

_What did you do to the black paladin?_ Bagheera asked irritated, and the woman quirked an eyebrow.

"What?" she asked, completely confused by the panther's behaviour.

_His lion is going crazy. She's been threatening to kill you herself because her pilot was depressed because of you_ Bagheera explained, finally sitting down in front of his pilot, tail still moving behind him anxiously.

"He told Black about the make-out?" she asked surprised, and the panther seemed to go stiff. She felt his eyes go wide in surprise before narrowing, as he started growling.

_What the fuck happened this last days I didn't see you? I can't believe I can't leave my paladin alone or she'll screw up!_ he started to complain, standing up and starting to pace around again, as Ariela rolled her eyes.

"I went into some kind of..., heat that is normal for Malteians. And it made him want to _mate_ with me so we kind of had a slip, but everything's fixed now. We talked things out last night," she explained, and the panther stopped dead in his tracks again.

_Did you mate? Is he your mate now? Malteians mate for life, idiot! You can't just pick someone at random! HE HAS TO BE SPECIAL!_

"We didn't mate and WHY ARE YOU SCREAMING?" she asked him, voice rising as she spoke, and Bagheera sat down again, lifting his chin in pride before answering.

_I don't think he would be capable of handling you. So he isn't worthy of the paladin of the black panther. No, miss_ he said, and then waited for the woman to laugh, but instead she aww-ed.

"You worry about me! How sweet is that? Come here, I want to give you a hug!" she exclaimed, walking towards the robot.

_How the crap are you going to hug me if I'm like two hundred times your size?_ he asked, but Ariela just climbed into his paw and laid there with her arms open, patting the metal with on hand and rubbing it with the other. _Oh_ Bagheera said then.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heeeey! So, I wanted to thank all the people that have been leaving kudos and commenting. I love you all! And also, I would like to ask you something.  
> Would you like to know more about the characters besides from what appears on the fic? Because I have been thinking of making one of this headcanon like things on Tumblr, only it would be canon in my universe, so that you could get to know them better, because there are many of their traits that I don't know if they'll appear in the novel.  
> Anyway. If you'd like to, say it in the comments and I'll do it :D  
> If you're liking it don't forget to leave kudos and comment any thoughts about it. Feedback is always welcomed with open arms and I answer to all the comments!


	24. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WE GET TO MEET OUR PALADIN'S FAMILIES! Well, at least five of them...  
> Whatever, let the teary reunions begin.

It was all of a sudden.

Pidge had appeared on the library, panting and looking like a maniac, as she usually did when some of her technology stuff worked just right. Lance had almost fallen from the chair he was sitting on while he read when the green paladin screamed his name, sounding like a demon that was coming for him.

"PIDGE, WHAT THE FUCK?" he screamed, as the girl ran towards him and started pulling him by his jacket.

"GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS FROM THAT CHAIR AND FOLLOW ME, LANCE!" she screamed in return, making the teen stand up and look at her with narrowed eyes, as he followed her trotting by her side.

"For your information, it's not scrawny. It's just this jeans do not favour me," he informed, and Pidge rolled her eyes so hard it _hurt_

She wanted everyone to be present for the big revelation, so they picked all of the crew members up in their way. Shiro was on the training deck with Keith, Hunk on his lion's hangar, Allura was in the kitchen speaking with Coran and the Girgkeans, and Ariela was inside the panther, arguing loudly about not wanting to take relationship advice from a sentient piece of metal.

"Pidge, what is so important that you had to get us all here?" Shiro asked, crossing his arms over his chest, as they all entered the control deck. On a small corner, there was a mess of cables and a Mac computer turned on. The screen of the deck was showing a blue internet page.

"That's Tumblr blue. Please tell me you didn't get on my Tumblr," Ariela begged as she sprinted towards the computer and started scrolling down, checking that everything on her dashboard was safe for work.

"Looks like Pidge found the secret porn stash," Lance laughed, and Ariela signalled him "fuck you" without turning around.

"Shut your fuck, Lance!" she exclaimed, and all the team exchanged knowing looks. Suddenly, even more things made sense.

It was Hunk who was the genius to first discover it.

"Wait. How did you get on Tumblr if you need the internet to connect?" the mechanic asked, already knowing the answer but not being able to believe this was actually happening. All eyes fell on the girl, that was a mess. White tank top stained with many things of different colours, jeans rolled up to the knees and hair looking like a tornado had gone over it, plus dark circles under her eyes but not even that managed to extinguish the excitement on her eyes.

"I did it. I connected with Earth," she said, smiling widely, as all the human crew just let those words sink in. That was it. They would be able to talk to their families now.

Ariela immediately opened up Skype, looking through her contact list, looking for someone from the McCalain family to be connected.

"Flynn is on," Lance said, pointing at the screen with his index and Ariela called the woman. Keith was blown away when, after a few rings, a female Lance appeared on the screen. She had the same tanned skin, blue eyes that were just a few shades clearer and her brown hair was up on a bun. Her eyes were bloodshot and her nose was red, so she had probably been crying, and when she spotted Lance and Ariela her face went from sad and tired to surprised, eyes and mouth wide open, as she signalled someone to get close.

"Oh, my god," she whispered, and then an adult Lance appeared. He was the exact replica of him, only that he was a little bit more squared and had a scrubby beard.

"DOMINIQUE! FLYNN!" he screamed, and the only reason he didn't look like he was about to cry was because tears were already streaming down his face, breathing shallow. Ariela was already doing her pouty-and-trembling lip thing, meaning she was about to start crying too.

"Where have you been? We are all worried sick about you! The people of the Garrison have kept us in here since Ariela called mum. What did you get yourselves into?" the female Lance, Flynn, asked and they laughed.

"We are actually in space, fighting a universal threat, called the Galra Empire, because we are the universe's last hope," Ariela said with cracked voice, before laughing weakly. "We really wished we were there, though," she added at the end.

"I can't believe what you just said," Dominque whispered, and Lance shrugged.

It looked too warm to be just a video-call in the middle of the cold and empty space. Keith couldn't help feeling the envy poking at his side, trying to surpass the warm and tingly feeling that had spread through his veins the second he saw Lance crying happy tears. He was finally speaking to his family after four months of not having the slightest contact with them.

"Guys, we should speak to the authorities. Warn them about the Galra," Allura whispered, placing a calming hand on both of the Latinos' shoulders, as they turned around to face her with sad eyes, like kids that didn't want to leave their friend's house.

"But..." Lance started and, surprisingly, Ariela cut him short.

"Allura is right. We need to protect them first and enjoy them later. We'll have a lot of time to talk to them once we've spoken with..., whoever you have to speak to," she told her brother, and Lance looked at her in the eye for a few seconds, before nodding slowly.

"Who do you have to talk to?" Flynn asked with curious blue eyes, and Lance turned to her.

"Listen, sis. I need you ask for Admiral Garrison. Tell him that it's the missing students, Keith Kogane and Takashi Shirogane. We are on an alien ship and have vital information about a possible attack. Did you get it?" he asked, and the woman nodded immediately, before running off. "How is stuff down there?" he asked his brother, who scratched his scrub beard as he thought.

"All the family is on edge Lance. First, we're told that you disappeared, then that you died in a training accident. Mum and Alec are practically dying. Chloé is calling for you all the time and Collin just... He stopped speaking. Annalise is the one that seems to be coping with it the best, but she shuts herself down, so we don't actually know how she's doing," he answered, and Lance's knuckles went white from gripping his jacket too tightly. "There are other families here too. Mum searched for the families of the people you gave the name, Ari. Oh, god. I should tell them you're okay," he continued, and then his eyes opened widely. "What am I doing here? I have to go tell mum!" he almost screamed, but Ariela stopped him.

"Don't! Idania is going to freak out and she'll want to talk to Lance more than anything, but we _need_ to speak to the admiral, it's urgent. Once we finish with him you can go and tell everyone that we're alive," the woman explained to him, and Dominique's dark blue eyes seemed to suddenly fill with sadness again.

"It's just that she... She is crumbling. I hadn't seen her like this since dad died," he commented, and Ariela's lips turned into a thin line.

"We'll make sure she is the next person to speak to us. But we have to save the world first, you see," Lance joked, trying to look like a charming superhero to hide the fact that he was dying inside. He wanted to speak to his mother.

"Who's admiral Garrison, by the way?" Ariela asked, and Lance turned to her with his eyes wide open, but it was Hunk who answered.

"Hello? Garrison institute? I mean..." he said, before shrugging.

"Yeah, I understand. But, he's there? Like, you can just call him and he'll be in your bedroom after five minutes?" she asked, and they all nodded.

"That is, in fact, a disadvantage. When I was a cadet he liked doing surprise inspections at random. He'd barge into your bedroom and look everywhere for God knows why," Shiro told her, with a warm smile.

"Yep. He still does that," Pidge huffed.

"Kind of the reason I got kicked out," Keith murmured, and they all turned to him. "It's a long story."

"I'm sorry, but who are they?" Dominique asked, and Lance proceeded to introduce them all to his oldest brother, even the aliens, who greeted them awkwardly, feeling small under those big blue eyes filled with curiosity and amazement.

Suddenly, the door was opened, and two soldiers came in, dragging Dominique out of the bedroom while he yelped and asked what was going on as if he was a bag of potatoes, and an old man sat down on the chair he had been seconds before, looking at them with a nonchalant expression, as the McClain (yes, Ariela was practically a McClain too) tried to assimilate the way their brother had been treated. He must have been in his fifties, white hair and skin too pale to be normal, grey emotionless eyes hiding behind a pair of narrow glasses. He was frowning, looking at the people on the screen with scrutiny.

"Is this some kind of sick joke cadets? Because punishment will be severe if it is," the man said, and Ariela wondered if she hadn't seen him in a movie about WWII once. He looked just like a Nazi General, ready to take thousands of lives and calmly sleep between silk bed sheets afterwards.

Shiro took a step forward and placed himself in middle of the picture, between Ariela and Lance.

"Unless they managed to clone your presumed long dead student, then I guess not," he answered, as he crossed his arms over his chest and looked at the admiral with a scowl on his face.

"Takashi Shirogane," Garrison said, with a neutral voice, not acting like someone who was watching a man that was presumed dead on the other side of a computer, alive and very pissed. "I heard a few doctors saying that they thought they had found you," he added, and Shiro's nostrils flared and he took in a deep breath, calming himself down, before looking at the admiral again.

"So they actually recognised me and still insisted on drugging me and keeping me as a prisoner?" he asked, practically shaking in anger, and Ariela wanted to place a hand on his shoulder, but she couldn't find herself able to move under those scary grey eyes.

"You fell from space after a year of being presumed missing. What did you expect, captain Shirogane?" the man asked, but then it was Pidge who appeared on the picture.

"You knew he wasn't dead. I've seen your investigations about Kerberos accident. You knew something bad had happened to the crew, you knew it wasn't the pilot's fault, and yet you went on and blamed it all on Shiro, let the families of the crew think they were dead," she said. Her shoulders were tense and her jaw squared, and her voice was so cold that everyone forgot she was just fourteen for a few seconds.

The admiral looked at her with narrow eyes for a few seconds, before coming to a conclusion.

"Katie Holt. The little flee that has been sneaking into my organisation to steal information. I hope you know you will be charged for all that you did when we find you," the admiral threatened, and Ariela couldn't believe he was speaking like that to a girl.

"Well, good luck coming to the other side of the universe and evading the fleet of alien monsters we have been fighting while you played the astronauts in your shitty school," she barked back, arms crossed over her chest and chin high in pride. She looked straight into the camera and enjoyed the flash of confusion and surprise that crossed through the man's eyes.

"Excuse me, but I have no idea of who you are," Garrison said, and the woman smiled crookedly.

"She is my sister and she is right. Never in her life has she touched flying equipment and yet she is doing so much more for that planet than you are, hiding information from everyone," Lance answered. "We know everything, Admiral Garrison. Probably even more than yourself."

"That is not possible. Reveal your position right now," the man demanded, and Ariela rolled her eyes.

"We are actually on space. We encountered the aliens that kidnapped me and my crew and other one's that are standing up against them. Actually, we became the last hope this universe's got," Shiro said, and asked Allura to come near in a whisper. She did so, a little bit hesitant at first, but once she could be seen by the admiral she looked like the actual queen she was (because if she was the last royal member, for Ariela she was already the queen).

"I'm Allura, princess of Altea. Nice to meet you, Admiral Garrison," she greeted, nodding politely at the screen.

"What the fuck is Altea?" he asked, and Coran flinched as if he was in pain when he heard him speak, actually groaning. He didn't like that man not one bit.

The explanation process was longer than everyone expected, as the old man was more hardheaded than anyone they had met before, and by the time they were finishing, the only ones standing and explaining were Pidge, Shiro and Allura.

"So this Galra. How powerful are they?" Garrison asked, and Ariela snorted from where she had laid down on the floor to reappear in front of everyone, just her neck and head appearing on the screen.

"We need six giant alien robots that are powerful enough to create wormholes to destroy their fleets. How powerful does that sound?" she asked, making the man frown again. He clearly was not used to be spoken to that way.

"She is right. We wanted to warn you in case they came too close to Earth, so you would be aware. But there is nothing you can actually do," Shiro answered. "Also we wanted to speak with our families," he added, and Garrison immediately shook his head.

"I'm afraid you will not," he said, and that was when everyone's heads shot up.

"Excuse me?" Hunk said, completely unworried about the way he had just spoken to his admiral.

"The mere fact of you contacting from space is dangerous if anyone outside from outside of the Garrison organization suddenly learns what is going on. You won't be allowed to speak to your families. Now, thanks to your poor sense of rationality, we have to go and threaten the woman and the man you were talking to before so not a single word slips from their mouth. Also, this computer will be confiscated, so don't bother with trying to contact them," Garrison explained, and as he spoke the sound of something growling started to become more and more strong.

It was Ariela, who had her white fangs pressing against her lower lip, but she seemed calm and collected when she stood up, fixing her hair and speaking with steady voice.

"Go ahead, mister. Confiscate the computer. Fuck that, confiscate every piece of technology they have and lock them up as if they were criminals. You know what? I don't give a fuck because you can't confiscate the internet. And, please be sure of what I say, if you don't let us speak to our families and them be completely aware of everything that is going on, every last piece of information we know will end up straight on some reporter's e-mail, and you will be facing many problems in the next forty-eight hours," she said, looking at the camera as if they were the admiral's eyes.

"She is right, Admiral Garrison. In less than twenty minutes I can have every channel in the United States broadcasting a live connection with us, explaining how you covered up the kidnapping of the crew of the Kerberos mission and how you also covered up the captain's arrival. Let's not forget the fact that you lost three students and a prisoner," Pidge said. "If I start typing now it might be seventeen," she added then, enjoying how the man's face started to become red.

Shiro leant in towards the two women.

"I don't think it's a good idea to make him mad," he said, but they both held a hand out, signalling him to stop, without taking their eyes away from the screen.

It took him almost a full minute to give in.

"What are your conditions?" he asked through gritted teeth, so mad because he had to surrender to a group of cadets and a random woman.

"We will be able to contact our families whenever we want and as much time as we want to. They will be treated correctly, no more dragging them out of bedrooms like you just did. And if they want, they will be allowed to go back to their homes," Hunk said, surprising everyone.

"In exchange, we will keep you updated on the war out here. And, if we win, Eath will have access to really good technology and diplomatic agreements with many planets just because we are from there," Shiro finished, and Garrison was already nodding.

"It is arranged then. Who is your technician? I would like to settle more ways of communication with him," the man asked, and Ariela smiled widely.

"Here you got her, sir," she answered, putting a hand on Pidge's shoulder, who had the straightest face they all had ever seen.

"It might take a while before we can talk to our families, and I will be speaking nerd, so if you want you can go. I'll let you know when we can do this," she said, and they all started to turn around to do whatever they wanted.

#  \- - -

Garrison's technician actually asked Pidge if he could adopt her once they had finished, after thirty seconds of downloading government secrecy programs on Ariela's computer, who was really worried about if she would be able to ever get it back, and the girl had just shrugged it off.

Then he had told her that her mother was already in the communication room, ready to speak to her. And then Pidge had started to panic a little bit.

Kelley Holt was a really strong woman. She had become the support of her teenage daughter, going through her rebellious phase and actually being able to cause an actual rebellion, infiltrating in government facilities and extracting information as if it was just a game, while she dealt with her husband's and son's death. It had been really hard for her, and Pidge had hated herself a lot for only putting more stress than her mother already had on her, but she _needed to know_ the truth.

But she couldn't just abandon her home and put herself at the Garrison without her mother knowing, so she had told the woman about her plan. She had used the typical speech of "If you actually love me you will let me do this", and her mother, knowing that there was no actual way of stopping her, had just asked her to not get in too much trouble.

And then Pidge had gotten involved in an intergalactic war. She had disappeared, and the Garrison people had told her she was dead.

She was already crying, as she waited for the connection to start.

When the image appeared on the screen, Pidge had a hard time wrapping her mind around the fact that the woman in there was her mother. She was thinner, hair greyer and there were really dark circles under her tired eyes.

But then she saw Pidge and life came back to them.

"Katie! Oh, Jesus Christ. You are okay! They told me you had died and I didn't know what to do," he mother started, immediately shedding tears of happiness and actually reaching out to caress her daughter's face on the monitor.

"I'm so sorry mum. I swear I wasn't planning this to happen, it just did and I didn't have time to let you know," Pidge started, cleaning the tears, slipping her fingers behind the glasses, before continuing. "But I'm looking for them, Matt and dad. They are alive somewhere out there, mum, I know it. I will find them and save them, I promise," she told the woman, but she shook her head.

"Katie, please don't do anything reckless. You are the only thing I have left," Kelley said to her, but Pidge just smiled.

"Not for long, mum. I swear it will change soon,"

# \- - -

Once Pidge was over talking to her mother, she went away (clearly not liking it one bit, but knowing that there were other families waiting to see their children) and the Garrett came in, just as Hunk was entering the control deck, with eyes wide open as he watched how his dad and his sister were sitting on a chair, the woman fastly signing worried sentences to her dad.

"Hey," Hunk both said and signalled when he appeared in front of his screen.

A pair of identical dark brown eyes turned to him, filled with relief and happiness, and the both of them started to well with tears, as Ailani signalled at the speed of light.

_I thought we had lost you out there, little bro. You had us so worried! Dad got so many grey hairs. Haunani is really sad too! I just messaged telling her that you are safe and sound_ she told him, as his father just stared at him in shock.

"I'm really sorry we didn't contact you earlier, but we couldn't seem to make it," he said, his hands flowing as he signalled the words that came out from his mouth for her sister, who nodded understandingly and put a hand on her heart.

"I am so glad you are safe and sound, Henalu," his dad finally spoke, Hunk's stomach doing a flip when he heard his name being called like that. He hadn't heard it in such a long time. "How is space? You finally made it there," he added then, making Hunk laugh quietly, lowering his face to clean a tear that had fallen.

"Space is good, I guess. Really pretty. We have seen so many different sceneries and races... It's been great guys. It is still scary and dangerous, but I love it," Hunk said, and his sister laughed. "How's college? Architecture is pretty hard!" he exclaimed, and she proceeded to tell him all about her semester.

# \- - -

"ANS!" a baby voice screamed, as Chloé threw herself towards the monitor, being stopped by her mother's hand on her chest, as Alec signalled her twin the screen. The youngest f the McClain had teary eyes, as he looked at Lance with them wide open.

"Hey there, baby!" he said, with a big smile, as he waved both of his hands.

"Lance, when you come home I am going to kick you ass until it becomes dust," Adrian said, and their mother shushed him, as Alec said "Language". And although usually, the blue paladin would have complained, he just started laughing, trying to swallow down the knot that had installed itself in his throat.

"And I will let you. You have no idea in what I've gotten myself into, fam," he said. "There are bad aliens, and good aliens, and spaceships, and giant robot cats. I pilot the blue lion, and the little shit pilots the black panther. My robot together with the one's the rest of the guys form this one giant warrior robot, and I have an ice ray to freeze stuff with..." he started, and once it was done he couldn't stop. He ended up telling his family everything that had happened in the last four months (avoiding the parts when someone had almost died, like Ariela or himself) and they listened to it with attention.

"So, huh? What do you think?" he asked once he was finished. There was a silence, and then his mother opened her mouth.

"So, is this mullet boy cute? Are you going to go out with him?" she asked, and all the family nodded along with the question, all wanting to know the exact same thing. Lance couldn't believe it.

"I just told you the story of how I turned into a space warrior, being the last hope of the universe, and your only question is about my crush?" he asked, and Idania nodded quickly, making Alec laugh.

"Can you call him? I want to see him! What is his name?" Annalise started asking, jumping around as she questioned him.

"Are you kidding me? No! You will start yelling embarrassing stuff!" he exclaimed, feeling the heat covering his face.

"Oh, come on! We'll speak Spanish so he doesn't understand!" Flynn said, but he shook his head once again. "Party pooper," she whispered, before lifting her eyes to the screen again. "Where's Ariela?" she asked.

"We said that we would have one call each, and as I can tell you she is okay she decided to call Naza and Benja when it's her turn," Lance explained. "But she said she'll call you next."

"How mean, changing us for her partners!" Dominique laughed, and Lance licked his lips.

"Actually they broke up," Lance informed them and all their eyes opened widely, not being able to believe it. Nazareth and Benjamin were really close to her sister, and she really loved them both, so they couldn't really imagine why they had broken up.

"Really? Did they hurt her or something?" Alec asked, as he stopped Collin from falling down from his lap, as he was trying to reach one of the bright and colourful buttons in front of him.

"She just..., didn't feel like it was the same anymore. They are still really good friends, though. She didn't tell you because you were all already worried with me so..." Lance started, before shrugging it off.

"Poor thing. When we come back we are eating ice-cream and singing your break up songs playlist," Flynn said, trying to mock Lance, but he just shrugged again. He was too happy because he was able to talk to his family to let the teasing affect him.

"She is okay, though. All my friends love her, and she really became friends with the captain, Shiro," he started, and Dominique stopped him with a gesture of his hand.

"The guy with the white fringe?" Lance nodded. "He was hot. Do you think...?" he started, and all the family smiled, but Lance shook his head.

"He is the one that was a prisoner, and she helps him a lot with his PTSD. But... Now that you mention it, I must admit they are shippable," Lance admitted, scratching his chin as he looked at the ceiling. "I will keep you updated on them," he promised.

"And on your advances with mullet boy too! Don't forget about him, Lance!" Annalise screamed, and he rolled his eyes.

# \- - -

"Are you sure this is not another one of you hallucinations while being high?" Naza asked and Ariela laughed before shaking her head one more time.

It was already 2am in Buenos Aires, but her ex-partners were there, wide awake and talking to her. At the beginning, it had all been tears and cursing each other, but then it had turned into the story of how she hand become a paladin.

"I am sure. It's all legitimate," she promised, putting a hand over her heart and smiling. "How is the rest of the squad? Are they worried?" she asked.

"Ariela, you fucking disappeared for four months right after your brother did. We were starting to think that someone had something against Alexander and was hunting the family down!" Benjamin answered, looking at her with his dark eyes, almost black, filled with sincerity. "Guido was already planning on travelling to the USA and start and actual investigation," he commented.

"Please tell them all I'm perfectly okay," she asked them, and Naza wrinkled her nose.

"You have already been on the verge of death, Ariela. You are not that okay," she said, and the woman just cliqued her tongue. "Don't act like that. Times are tough," Naza added, but Ariela looked at him dead in the eye.

"And I am tougher. I will be fine. In a few months we are going to land on Earth and I'll make you swallow your doubt in me," she said, and her friend smiled weakly.

"I'm just worried about you," she admitted.

"We all are," Benja started, squeezing his girlfriend's shoulder. "But, we also know that you are practically a ninja. So you are going to be okay," he added, and the two women smiled at him before Naza turned to look back at Ariela.

"Please promise me you are going to make it back home. For me," she said, using her puppy eyes. And that was so not fair.

"I pinky promise."

# \- - -

Ariela was walking out of the control deck while wiping the tears away from her face, when Siro stopped her with a hand on her shoulder. His eyes showed a mix of lost and scared.

"It's my turn," he declared, and Ariela nodded, smiling at him reassuringly.

"Are you excited?" she asked, and he nodded, but then shook his head.

"I've been gone for so long. What if they don't recognise me?" he asked, and before Ariela could answer him, tell him that he hadn't changed that much, he spoke again. "Would you come in with me?" The question surprised her, and she looked at him with a serious face.

"I don't know, Shiro. It's something really personal," she started, voice near a whisper, and he swallowed hard.

"It's just I don't think I can do it alone. You have to help me lie to them, tell them that everything is okay," he said, and the second he noticed that Ariela didn't approve what he was planning he continued. "It's just until I go back home. They thought I was dead for a whole year, and I don't want them to worry anymore. When I meet them again I will tell them the whole truth," he promised, but Ariela still hesitated a few seconds before answering.

"Okay," and then she turned around and walked back into the control deck, Shiro walking by her side. The second the doors opened, they heard a woman's voice and saw a man rubbing his face tiredly.

"There must be something wrong! You told me I could see my son here and I am not seeing him!" the woman complained angrily, and when they got nearer, Ariela noticed that the man rubbing his face was actually doing it out of embarrassment.

"He might be a little bit delayed, Jussara. There's no need to yell at the poor boy because of that" the man calmly told the woman, pulling her by the wrist and making her sit down.

They looked what you would get if you split Shiro in half. He had his dad's narrow nose and his slightly slitted eyes, but then the jaw and the ears were his mother's. Also the grey eyes, but the straight black hair was his father's.

Shiro took a deep and shaky breath before walking in front of the screen, putting himself in the picture.

"Hey," he said softly, and the pair of eyes turned to him. His mother opened her mouth widely, gaping at his sight, eyes starting to tear up quickly, as his father just sat there, not being able to react. "I've really missed you," he laughed awkwardly. There were a few more seconds of silence before his mother spoke.

" _¿O que aconteceu com seu cabelo?_ " she asked, and he started to laugh loudly, as Shiro's father looked at her with narrowed eyes.

"Those can't be your first words to you only son, who you thought was dead for a whole year!" he exclaimed, and she looked at him a little bit pissed off.

"Well, forgive me, Takeshi. It turns out that it's my way of just not breaking down," Jussara answered in a sarcastic friendly tone of voice, and Takeshi sighed longly, making Shiro laugh. Then their eyes were back at him, with smiles on their faces now, and his mother was openly crying fat tears.

"I really thought you had died. I was so devastated, Shiro. It was so hard at the beginning," she told him, grimacing at the memories, and Shiro's smile faded away. "And then... When that woman called saying that you were alive...," she broke down midsentence, starting to sob.

"I'm completely fine mum. And I will be back home as soon as I can, I promise you that," was the first thing he said, and Ariela noticed his hands were shaking, so she took the left one and smiled at him when the man turned to look at her.

"What happened to your arm, Shiro?" his father asked, and the paladin's eyes drifted to his right arm, a pained and angered expression filling his face, before quickly washing it away.

"Oh, this. I... I got harmed on the Kerberos mission, and they made me this," he lied, putting his robotic hand up in the air to show it to his parents. "It's cool, isn't it?" he asked, squeezing Ariela's hand.

There was no need to be a genius to know he hated that arm.

"It is. What metal is it made of? How does it work?" Jussara asked, leaning in to take a closer look at the arm.

"I have no idea," he answered with a shrug and looked at the other paladin. "One of my teammates is here. Would you like me to introduce you?" he asked, desperate to distract them from the questions they should be asking.

"Oh, yeah! Is it the little girl? Katie? We met her mum here, she is a really nice woman," Takeshi smiled, and Shiro shook his head, pulling Ariela into view, as she waved them slowly.

"Actually, she is Ariela. She is family from Lance, the one with the huge family?" he asked, and their parents both nodded after a few seconds of thought.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Shirogane," Ariela said, feeling a little bit anxious, like the time she had met Idania and Alec, knowing that those were her aunts bosses and that she would be living with them for the rest of her life, or at least until she was capable of moving out.

"Nice to meet you too, Ariela," Takeshi answered with a smile, and Jussara nodded along, grey eyes fixated on their linked hands with a glint of curiosity. "What do you do in that crazy spaceship?" he asked, trying to make conversation. He was really nice.

"I pilot the black panther. Is a robot that doesn't form part of Voltron," she answered, and Shiro's mum finally looked at her.

"Oh, Voltron. The huge robot! You aren't part of if?" she asked, a little bit disappointed.

"She isn't, but she is still a really important part of the team," Shiro said, remarking word by word, and Ariela looked at him with a quirked eyebrow.

"Shiro's the leader. He has the biggest robot," she stated, and his parents ah-ed at the statement, their eyes going from the woman to their son, starting to congratulate him. Shiro looked at his teammate with narrowed eyes.

"So, how big are this robot?" Takeshi asked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -¿O que aconteceu com seu cabelo?: What happened to your hair?
> 
> Yes, Hunk is just a nickname. And yes, his sister is deaf-mute. And yes, Lance's family is just the fandom. Please, imagine that Ariela's conversation with Benjamin and Nazareth is in Spanish, and she actually had to call them on Skype to talk to them, as they are not at the Garrison to use the communication system.
> 
> In other news, my tumblr already has Ariela's, Lance's and Pidge's headcanons, and soon I will be uploading Hunk's and Shiro's. I'm still thinking about Allura's, Coran's, Keith's and the rest of the characters that will appear soon ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). If you are interested, just copy the link I'll leave bellow, and that is my "artistic tumblr". 
> 
> Anyway, don't forget to leave kudos if you like the fic and to comment anything you like. Be it doubts, suggestions or even theories about what will happen!
> 
> Love you!
> 
> http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/



	25. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hehehehe

"So..." Keith said when Ariela and Shiro appeared in the common room.

The five paladins that had talked to their families had bloodshot eyes and red noses, still sniffing from time to time. And, although he didn't mean to look brooding, he couldn't help it. He wanted to have someone on Earth too, someone to go back to when all of this space crap finished and they were allowed to go back home. But there was no one.

"Um... I say that we could watch a movie. You know, to cheer things up?" Ariela said, with a smile Keith hadn't seen before. She looked like she still wanted to cry, and she would rub circles on Shiro's left hand non-stop.

"What's a movie?" Allura asked, and all the humans turned towards her with surprised eyes. Lance wanted to ask if she was just kidding, because how could a place with such high tech like Altea not have the equipment to make movies (the thought that maybe they just hadn't had the idea didn't cross his mind) but Hunk spoke first.

"It's like a play, but on a screen. Sometimes they have effects and stuff like that," he explained, and Allura's eyes seemed to glow. Sugey immediately started jumping on the sofa she was sitting on.

"Yes, a play! I love plays!"

"But how are we going to...?" Shiro started, and Pidge smiled widely.

"To contact Earth, I had to connect Ariela's computer to the whole Castle. We can access to it from any room!" she explained, as she stood up and cleared her voice. "Enable Mac one," she said, and the image of Ariela's desktop appeared on the wall of the common room.

"Netflix is back and it's here to stay," the woman murmured, before letting go of Shiro's hand and opening Chrome. " We are going to need blankets, pillows, snacks and drinks!" she commanded, and the man smiled widely, before turning to the crew.

"Lance, Keith, Pidge and Sugey, you will collect all the pillows and blankets you can carry. Hunk and Nallely will prepare the snacks and I'll go get the drinks," he said, already walking towards the door. "Oh, Ariela!" he exclaimed, and the woman turned towards him. "Pick something PG, please."

Twenty minutes later, they were all together in the pit of blankets and pillows the youngest had prepared on the floor, the snacks and drinks on the sofas because those were the only straight surface, watching "Now you see me".

It was a mess. Although Ariela and Lance had insisted on given the aliens an "introduction speech to the human world" they still were pretty much confused while watching the movie and would ask every time they didn't understand something, which led to a movie of two hours last three.

Sugey had insisted on sitting with Pidge. They had ended up at the very beginning of the pillow pit, laying on their stomachs and watching the movie with wide eyes (because Pidge enjoyed magic, overall when it took her more than five minutes to discover how the trick had been made). Allura was in the middle, sitting and leaning forward, also wide-eyed, letting small exclamations of surprise every time the horseman performed an amazing trick. Coran was beside her, but he fell asleep fifteen minutes after the movie started, snoring loudly. Nallely was also there, lost in a sea of blankets and pillows; if you looked intently, you could find a glimpse of her lilac eyes from under the blankets covering her. Ariela and Lance started watching the movie cuddled together, but somewhere along the half of it, they started to fight: Lance was hoarding all the pillows and blankets, and Ariela would keep drinking from his glass, so they parted ways, Lance squeezed himself in middle of Hunk and Kieth and Ariela just sat beside Shiro.

Both Kieth and Shiro were in a state of bliss. What they were doing was so domestic, movie nights with friends and family, and peaceful. It was half because the movie was great, and half because of the environment.

Keith was feeling really warm, rolled up in a white blanket, trying to choke back his chuckles when Lance made a funny comment about the movie, causing the blue paladin to look at him from the corner of his eyes with a small smile on his lips. 

And for Shiro, it wasn't that different. Although at the beginning Ariela had just sat by his side and the both of them were just laying their backs against the sofa, habits were habits, and they had ended up cuddling: she was laying on his chest with his arms wrapped around her. The woman discovered that Shiro was really anxious and couldn't wait until the ending of the movie to know the truth, so he had tried to pry the information out of her, which hadn't worked of course.

And then the movie ended.

"I LOVE MOVIES!" Allura screamed the second the titles started rolling, clapping happily. Sugey sat up and turned around, looking at Shiro with wide and gleaming eyes.

"Can we watch another one? Please?" she asked, and Shiro looked at her surprised. Why was she asking him? Allura was the princess and leader of the ship. And then all eyes were on him. Did he have to give the order?

"Um..." he started, looking around.

"Guys, it's already 2am. We should all go to sleep. Tomorrow night we'll watch one again, okay?" Ariela said, as she stood up and started stretching her muscles, yawning. A chorus of "Damn" followed her words, and everybody started to move, Nallely suddenly surging from the sea of covers and pulling her sister up as Allura woke up Coran. Shiro grabbed Ariela's wrist and she looked at him.

"Thanks," he said with a smile, and she mirrored it. 

"Hey, Ariela. I've got a problem here," Lance said, voice almost a whisper, and they all turned towards him. He was sitting all red, back against the sofa, and Keith was asleep _on his lap_. "It's like a kitten. I don't want to move and wake him up" he said with squeaky voice, and his sister snorted.

"Just pick him up and take him to his bedroom. He must be dead tired," she answered, remembering how Keith had just shrugged and muttered that he would be on the training deck when the parade of family reunions started, sulking. He had probably trained his feelings away, like someone she knew.

"But what if he wakes up and punches me?" Lance asked, voice still squeaky, and Shiro laughed, as he started to stand up.

"He won't, I promise. If he is as tired as I think he is, he won't wake up till tomorrow morning, overall if he is comfortable," he told the blue paladin, who gulped and started to move slowly, making Keith frown and mumble in dreams.

"I can't pick him up," Lance said through teeth gritted because of the effort.

"I'll take him," Shiro replied, still smiling. In one swift movement, he was carrying Keith bridal style, and the teen was burying his face in the man's chest. He was so cute when asleep and not being the aggressive little grumpy shit he was used to being.

"Do we have to pick everything up or..." Pidge started, looking at their comfort pit with a wrinkled nose. Allura followed her eyes and she looked at them as if she had given up on life.

"Nah," was all she said, before starting to walk towards her bedroom, murmuring a goodnight.

# \- - -

The door slid open and Shiro appeared in the bedroom, already on his pyjamas, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his hands, walking blindly towards the bed and letting himself drop on it.

"He is still asleep?" Ariela asked from the bathroom, where she was getting changed into her light-blue pyjamas. The man hummed in answer, smiling as he remembered how Keith had been mumbling Lance's name while he took him to his bedroom. It was funny to imagine what would have happened if the blue paladin had been able to lift him.

"Did you like the movie?" she asked, walking towards the bed and turning the lights off, as she slid under the covers and wrapped her arms around Shiro's waist, burying her face between his shoulder blades, as they tangled their legs.

"It was great. What are we going to watch tomorrow?" he asked, already feeling his eyelids falling shut.

"No idea. We'll decide in the moment."

# \- - -

It certainly was weird sleeping alone after weeks and weeks of sleeping with Keith on the same bed, usually cuddling. Even after the "No homo" incident they had kept on doing it, so Lance was more than used to it.

And kind of missed it now that he was alone in his bedroom.

It usually wasn't hard for him to fall asleep as long as he had his music and his eye mask, but there were things missing. The soft hair against his face, the pressure of Keith's face against his chest or the feeling of his legs tangled with his. He was already freaking out, thinking about the dark circles that would appear under his eyes if he lost his sleep for the night.

"Fuck it," he exclaimed, ripping the covers from his body and angrily walking out of his bedroom. He wasn't going to let that mullet boy ruin his beauty sleep unless it was _that_ other way of doing it.

Lance thought that when he opened the door he would find the lights out, Keith sleeping peacefully on his bed. He would have to slowly and carefully slide into the bed, praying that Keith didn't wake up. Instead, when he opened the door he found the lights turned up to the highest bright, Keith sitting on his bed like a little ball, hugging his legs close to his chest and slightly rocking himself forward and backwards. He was mumbling something that Lance couldn't understand, ears stuck to his skull, and the blue paladin almost sprinted towards him.

"Hey, Keith. What's wrong, buddy?" he asked, putting a hand on Keith's knee, and his teammate finally looked at him with bloodshot eyes.

"I had a nightmare. I dreamt I killed Shiro," he answered, panic appearing on his eyes again when he said that out loud. "I was wearing a Galra uniform and... Zarkon told me to kill him and I obliged," he sobbed, burying his face between his legs again.

Lance quickly sat on the bed, manhandling Keith into hugging him, as he rubbed circles on his back, letting the red paladin cry and drench his sleeping shirt.

"You would never do that. Shiro is practically your brother and you love him. You would never hurt the people you love, Keith. I know you," he explained, and his teammate's head shot up at the last phrase, wide eyes looking at him, filled with a feeling Lance couldn't recognise. "Why didn't you come looking for me when you woke up?" he asked, and Keith turned his face away.

"I didn't want to wake you up. I was really late and I have been sleeping well lately, so being up one night wouldn't harm me," Keith answered, mumbling softly, and Lance was only able to understand because he was so close.

"It's not about you sleeping Keith, it's about you not being alone," he explained. "You can wake me up if you want, okay? It won't bother me," he added, already starting to lay down on the bed. Keith immediately followed suit, giving his back to Lance. "Do you want the lights on or off?" he asked.

"On."

# \- - -

Shiro was usually the first to wake up, both because once Ariela fell asleep it was hard to wake her up and because he was used to waking up early or sleeping little because of both his years as a military school student and as a war prisoner. And he was really thankful of this, as it helped to avoid embarrassing things (like bad breath and morning wood).

But that day was different.

When he woke up, there already was light in the bedroom, the noise of water falling and soft chattering barely being bale to be heard over the music that was playing. On the wall, right above Ariela's desk, the image of Spotify had appeared. The music playing was Current location, by LANY, and it was really soft. It made him want to go back to sleep, or just close his eyes and enjoy the music, but if Ariela was already up it had to be pretty late.

He rolled into his back, rubbing his eyes before opening them, and with a groan, he got up. Mind still hazy with sleep, he walked towards the bathroom, surprised because he found the door open and Allura in there. She was holding clothes of different colours, showing them to Ariela (who Shiro guessed was in the shower, but he didn't dare to peek).

"Good morning," he said, letting his weight rest on the frame of the door, and Allura turned towards him quickly, looking embarrassed because of the deep blush on her cheeks and the gleam in her eyes.

"Good morning!" Ariela sang back from the shower, the note really high, making Shiro open his eyes in surprise.

"Hello, Shiro," Allura said, slowly hiding the clothes behind her back while looking at him in the eye, as if he hadn't seen that before.

"Are you helping Ariela choosing what to wear?" he asked, and the aforementioned laughed, her head popping out of the shower door with shampoo on the hair.

"Actually is the other way around. She wants to look pretty but she won't let me tell her that tennis skirts really favour her legs," Ariela said. "Show him, get a second opinion," she told Allura, before getting back on the shower.

Allura looked at Shiro, asking him if she, in fact, had to do it, and he shrugged. Sighing she showed him the two outfits. One was a black halter neck top with no cleavage and a white tennis skirt. The other was a lilac summer dress with pink flowers.

"I have absolutely no idea of what... Why do you want to wear this? Maybe knowing the reason I can actually help you decide," he said, and the blush turned a deeper red. Ariela's head appeared again.

"I'm sorry, dear, but that is actually confidential information," she said, smiling brightly.

"Oh, really?" he whined, feeling the curiosity picking harder on his brain. Now that he couldn't know why he _needed_ to know why. "Please tell me, I swear I won't tell anybody!" he begged, and Ariela looked at Allura, eyes saying "Your choice".

Allura bit her lip, groaning, before nailing her eyes on the floor, weighing her chances. Shiro was a good guy, and he didn't talk too much with the people that definitely couldn't know about this.

"I may want to impress someone," she started, still looking at the floor, and Shiro's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Ariela laughed.

"Come on, tell him who it is!" she demanded, and Allura looked at the shower with rage, before whispering softly:

"Nallely."

"Oh," Shiro said, with a big smile. "I suspected that she had something for you, but I didn't suspect you had something for her," he laughed, crossing his arms over his chest, and Allura looked like a little sister that was pretty pissed at his taunting older brother, ready to kick his ass.

"I don't actually have something for her. I mean, I don't know. It's just that Ariela mentioned something of the feeling of knowing that somebody is crazy for you and she dressed me up. And I crashed into Nallely and she wouldn't stop staring and although at the beginning it was embarrassing I found myself liking it," she explained.

"I love when I influence people!" Ariela exclaimed from the shower, making them both roll their eyes. "I really mean it with the tennis skirt, but I would add a little bit of colour," she proceeded to mumble.

"But you add colour to your clothes. You are too colourful," Shiro complained. "I think is good like that, but I don't know which shoes you are going to wear," he then told to Allura, who seemed to just realise that she had to wear shoes.

She answered after a few seconds.

"Fuck it, I'll go barefoot. Thank you, paladins," she said, leaving the dress behind and walking away. Shiro watched with a smile, staying on the door frame.

"I'm loving this whole roommates sitcom aura, you know? It's really relaxed," he admitted, and the water stopped running.

"Yeah. It's amazing when stuff gets domestic," she said, "Can you pass me a towel?" and then her hand was appearing from the door. Shiro looked around a spotted one on the sink. He grabbed it and gave it to her. "Now that we can talk to our families the spirits are going to be really lifted, and there are other things to do that are not connected with space now," she explained. "I'm worried about Keith, though." 

"I know. We were all talking to our families and he..., wasn't," Shiro said, and then Ariela came out of the shower, towel wrapped around her body and hair a mess.

"That's exactly what I was thinking. Isn't there someone he can talk to? Friends? A tutor?" she asked, as she started brushing her hair.

 

"I think the only person he would call was me. So..." he said, finishing with a shrug.

"Then we will have to put more effort into making him feel like home here. Engage plan: Make Keith happy," she said with a lame imitation of a captain's voice, and Shiro laughed. "I'm just glad that the whole half-Galra stuff wasn't as hard as I thought it was gonna be."

"Really?" Shiro asked, quirking an eyebrow. She sighed.

"I mean, yeah, at the beginning the whole deal was a bitch and, yeah, he doesn't quite speak to us about it. But I don't see him alienating himself from the team. Moreover, he seems to be closer to us, or at least more content with our company," she explained. Shiro thought about it.

"I guess you are right," he admitted, before sighing. "Well, I'm going to get changed. See you at breakfast," he said, already walking away.

"More like lunch, Shiro!" Ariela screamed, and he turned around, his eye catching the clock on the wall, and it informing that it was, in fact, time for lunch.

# \- - -

"What are we going to do today, Trainer Coran?" Lance asked as he saw the man walking into the training deck with a huge box on his arms, Nallely, Sugey and Allura following him.

"This morning I was rummaging on the store while you lazy quiznacks slept till lunch, and I found this," he said, leaving the box on the floor and opening it. Allura's eyes widened as she gasped, reaching into the box and taking a vest and a pair of gloves out of it. They were blue.

"What is that, Coran?" Pidge asked, getting near.

"It's equipment for an old training game. We call it the bomb," he answered.

"The trainees would split into two teams. One of them has a vest with an orange light, which means that he's got the bomb. The only way of getting the bomb off of you is passing it to someone from the other team, touching them with the gloves," Allura started to explain.

"The bomb has a random generate countdown. When it reaches zero, the vest of the person with the bomb will give them a slight electric shock, and they are out of game. The last team standing is the winner," Coran finished, looking up to the paladins.

"So, it's Voltron against the rest of you guys?" Hunk asked, and Allura shook her head, taking out a red vest.

"It's red against blue. The captains of the teams choose the members," she answered, and Kieth and Lance looked at each other, eyes gleaming at the opportunity of surpassing the other in something. This wasn't something they made a competition of, this _was_ a competition. "I think that the red and blue paladins should be the captains," Allura said.

"I choose Shiro!" Keith shouted immediately, and Lance squinted at him.

"I choose Allura!" he exclaimed, and Ariela turned to his brother outraged.

"You chose Allura over me? What kind of brother are you?" she asked, voice high, making the rest laugh, but Lance was impassive, waiting for Keith to choose again.

"Nallely is mine," he said.

"Ariela it is then," Lance replied.

"So I was not your first, not your second but your third option!" she exclaimed. "Can I change teams?"

"No," everyone answered in unison.

"Hunk is red."

"Sugey is blue."

"Coran in my team."

"Pidge on mine."

Two minutes later, they were all wearing their vests and gloves.

"There are not actual rules for this game besides the ones that we already explained. You can play however you want," Coran explained, as he tapped a few things in a hologram keyboard. And then the floor started moving.

It was as if the metal was alive, raising and forming different platforms and structures you could hide behind of. There were stairs, slides, monkey bars, bridges and ropes hanging from the ceiling. There were also things that looked like caves and climbing walls.

"Dude, this is dope," Lance said, rubbing his hands together with an evil grin.

"We have fifteen minutes to scatter. GO!" Coran shouted, and everyone went their own way.

Kieth, Lance, Allura, Hunk and Coran chose to stay down, hiding behind rock-shaped pieces of grey metal, while Ariela, Shiro, Nallely, Pidge and Sugey chose higher grounds. Ariela was crouching, just above Lance, when a doubt surged on her mind.

"Wait! Can we pass the bomb around our own team if it is convenient for us?" she screamed.

"I guess, yeah," Allura answered, from the cave she had been hiding in.

"Time's out," Coran announced, eyes fixated on the chronometer projected on every wall.

A bip was heard from behind a wall and then a groan.

"Damn it!" Hunk exclaimed, before getting out of his hiding spot, orange light shining, and running after Lance, who hadn't hidden at all.

Although Hunk seemed to have a fixed objective and he wouldn't change it, everyone started moving, changing positions if he got too near. And then he reached Lance, barely brushing his fingertips against the back of his vest, and another bip was heard before the orange light appeared on Lance's vest.

"You have to touch someone that is not who just touched you!" Coran screamed, suddenly remembering the rule.

"What?" Lance asked, looking around for a prey.

" _¡Mancha con manga no engancha!_ " Ariela screamed as she dropped from the place she reached out for Lance from the platform where she was on. " _Pasala_ " she told him, and Lance jumped, again barely brushing his fingertips against her vest. The orange light appeared on Ariela with a bip, and before anyone could react she was already on her feet, running towards her closest enemy.

"It's not fair! They have another language and we can't understand what they are saying!" Shiro complained, as he turned around and started running, passing through a really flimsy bridge that moved from side to side. It looked like something Indiana Jones would run over.

"Suck it up, Shiro!" Pidge exclaimed, as Ariela jumped and grabbed a rope, saving the bridge run, before letting herself drop and rolling on the ground. Three strides later she was jumping on Shiro like a panther, eager to bury her teeth on his neck and claws on his back. But she just touched the vest, before grinning at him enjoying her immunity, hearing the bip and watching the orange light appear.

"There are times I really hate you," he informed, making her laugh before he jumped to the lower ground, and landed right in front of Allura's cave entrance, before getting in and crawling his way to the princess.

There was the sound of punches and cursed before a bip could be heard.

"QUIZNACK!" she screamed, the word echoing on the deck, as she got out of the cave and run after Keith.

"Language!" Coran reprimanded. Allura caught onto the paladin and touched his back, the impulse almost tipping him over.

Before Keith could turn around, the sound of a cornet broke into the air and the orange light turned red, before the electric shock run through his body. Keith groaned and clutched his chest, but before it hurt a lot the shock was over and the floor behind him opened, letting him fall into darkness.

"Who's got the bomb now?" Allura asked, just in time Sugey screamed bloody murder.

"NALLELY! THAT'S NOT FAIR!" she shouted, as the orange light passed from one sister to the other with a bip.

"This is practically a secure point," Coran laughed, but then the two Grigkeans looked at him with scary eyes, seeming ready to murder. Nallely clamped a hand on her sister's shoulder.

"Go get him, Su," she said, and the girl started running at a speed that just wasn't natural.

"CORAN, RUN!" Hunk screamed, but the man started climbing a rope instead. Sugey jumped and punched him in the back, causing a loud smack to sound across the room, and Coran immediately slid to the floor, touching Pidge and running away, although she couldn't touch him.

"There's no one near me!" she complained before she spotted Hunk on a platform. She ran and climbed the climbing wall like she was a monkey, getting up there in record time and touching Hunk.

"Again?" he asked, turning around and spotting Lance hiding behind a rock. In almost no time he had passed the bomb to him, and Lance started going after Shiro, but when he was about to touch him the cornet sounded again and Lance was shocked, before being swallowed by the floor.

# \- - -

Like it happened in other training exercises, Lance magically appeared in the control room of the training deck, falling on his butt gracelessly and groaning. Keith was standing over the wide window, watching how the teams played against each other with his arms crossed over his chest. Lance was standing up when he turned around, and then it happened.

Keith started laughing. And it was not a half-hearted chuckle, it was a full-on burst of laughter, clutching his stomach and losing air, making Lance's eyes open widely taking in the sight. Keith's ears up in excitement, a red flush dying his pale lilac skin (it had been losing colour after he changed, going from angry purple to pastel lilac) and tears streaming down his eyes, because he couldn't stop laughing. And, man, it was a beautiful sound, nothing like Ariela's hyena cackles or evil laughs. It reminded Lance of water flowing on a stream.

"Pathetic, aren't we?" Keith said once he managed to calm down a little bit, still chuckling from now and then. Lance let out a breathy laugh.

"I don't know what you mean," he admitted, smiling softly. Keith took a deep breath, giving a few steps in his direction, before signalling the window.

"Look at them. Our teams are still going at it and we're here. Us, the mighty rivals that think they're the best and that won't let an opportunity to prove it pass," he explained himself, and Lance pouted.

"If you think that then why do you keep challenging me?" Lance asked, voice low and purely curious. Keith shrugged, before taking a hand back to scratch his neck.

"I don't know. It's not that I actually think I'm better than you. But the since the first day I met you, you were challenging me constantly. I don't know, I just..." he started, before taking in a deep breath and continuing. "I thought that you hated me without motive, so I just played along your game to make you mad," he finished, and Lance's eyes fell.

"I guess that's my fault," he nodded, fingers tapping against his thighs impatiently.

"Why did you act like that?" Keith asked, stepping closer, and Lance avoided his eyes. Was Lance going to answer? Tell him that he did hate him or that it had been something else? Because he was dying to know. Lance sighed and walked to sit down, back against a wall, and Keith followed suit, sitting and leaving a little bit of space between them.

"The moment I tried to apply for the Garrison all I heard was your name. Keith Kogane, the best pilot of this generation. Keith Kogane, the kid who started from the deep bottom and now is top of his class," he started, looking at his hands. "I have a lot of trouble memorising, you know? And much of the Garrison is about that, memorising codes, names, buttons, levers... I was doing awful, and all the professors started talking. They thought the only motive I was there was because of my stepfather," he started, before letting his head rest on the wall and turning towards Keith. "And then you got kicked out, and I was let in. I had to go to every class, do every simulation knowing that I wasn't there because of my own merits, but because you had just snapped one day," he answered.

"I never knew that," Keith said in a whisper, and Lance let out a sad chuckle.

"How would you? You didn't even know my name," he said, and Keith's heart shrunk on his chest. An awkward silence followed, and Keith was wondering how long the bomb would take on going off this time.

"Well, obviously the Garrison crew was wrong," Keith said then, breaking the silence, and making Lance look at him again. "You are piloting a weapon of massive destruction in a war against a whole empire. If you weren't a good pilot you wouldn't be here," he said. "And I genuinely believe you are a good pilot. Just because you struggle to remember complicated and unnecessary code names doesn't mean that you are stupid or lack skill." God, it took a lot of effort to get that off of his chest, but the beautiful gleam in Lance's eyes was worth it.

"Do you really think that?" he asked, smiling softly, and Keith nodded.

"But you act really stupidly sometimes, though," he added then, and Lance laughed out loud. "You don't take stuff seriously."

"I'm sorry. It's just my way of not letting things affect me," was the blue paladin's answer, as he shrugged. "But now that we are at it, I think you are a great pilot too. I really respect that," he added, looking at Keith again.

He looked extremely mature in that moment. It was as if the goofy Lance facade he was used to putting up to comfort others or himself was down, and he was showing himself like he was. No ornaments to make him seem prettier nor smiles to make him see easy going. He was there, eyes glowing despite his face showing that he was tired, and just being himself, letting Keith take a peek on the real Lance McClain. The Lance that worried about his teammates and would actually die for them, the Lance that was intelligent and had to stand people telling him otherwise, the Lance that had worked hard to get to the place he was and having people that didn't know him it was just because his stepfather had money.

Underrated would be the perfect word.

And Keith looked so open. There were no walls around him, no tension on his shoulders nor harshness in his eyes. He had laughed and laid back with him, admitted what he thought, come clean about their rivalry and actually _praised_ him. He looked human like that, not like the unreachable perfect yet rebel teen that everyone thought of him. He looked like what he was: a teen used to be completely alone and sweating for the stuff he got, not quite knowing how to make friends but _trying_. Trying to get closer to Lance.

Young was the word for him.

_Okay, Kogane, this is it. Man up. Lance is there and he is looking great and you practically confessed to him how great you think he is, so put on the pants and fucking kiss him_ Keith thought, biting his cheek, as he took a deep and shaky breath, leaning in closer really slowly, eyes never leaving Lance's.

_Oh, good Lord_ Lance thought, eyes half-lidded, as he reassumed his "fuck it" personality and leant in too.

They were so fucking close.

Lance moved away first, turning his face in the direction to his ceiling. Keith practically jumped back to his place and added a few inches of space between them.

"Did you hear...?" the blue paladin started, but the ceiling opened and Pidge fell on the floor, screaming angry curses to Coran.

"That fucking space Nigel Thornberry!" she screamed, getting up as she rubbed her butt.

"You have to be fucking kidding me," Lance muttered with a smile, as he let his head softly bump the wall, Keith burying his face between his knees to hide his blush, ears sticking to his skull in shame.

# \- - -

The final face-off was Allura vs. Nallely, having the last one eliminated Ariela after she took Shiro off the picture.

It had been savage. Now that they were only two, the bomb would go back and forth, the game having changed from something similar to tag to an actual combat. It was something amazing to see, all the crew was mesmerised watching the exchange of punches and the occasional running away that happened if one took to long in recover from the punch.

Nallely won, not for much, but she did. She had cornered Allura against a wall and playfully touched her in the middle on the best, and before the princess could return it she was shocked. Which was a pity, because if she had had five more seconds, Nallely was screwed. The sight of Allura, hair the remains of a brain that made her look even wilder if you summed the fighting energy on her blue eyes and the perfect stance, the training blue outfit sticking to her body and panting had left her breathless and motionless. If the princess had had the opportunity to pass the bomb again, Nallely wouldn't have returned it.

"I'm going to have a shower. You should all do the same if we are going to be all stick together in the pillow pit after dinner," Allura announces, receiving a chorus of "Aye, aye, captain", before walking away.

"Shiro?" Keith called, and the man turned towards him. "I need to talk to you"."

# \- - -

Keith didn't want to go near his bedroom, so instead he took Shiro to Red's hangar to speak.

When they arrived, the lion was walking around impatiently, jumping around the moment she caught a glimpse of Keith. She was bombarding him with recriminations and curses. _I swear to the stars, if the next chance presents itself and you don't kiss him I will slam my paw against your body and squeeze you!_ was one of them.

"What's gotten into her?" Shiro asked, and Keith turned to face him.

"I almost kissed Lance," he answered.

_Remark the way almost!_ Red roared on his mind and he shushed her, gaining an angry "humph" as the lion gave her back to them and walked to the other corner of the hangar to lay down, acting offended.

"What?" Shiro asked, eyes open wide in excitement. So Keith proceeded to tell him all about what had happened when they had been alone in the control room, ignoring Red's angry or not safe for work comments.

"When he turned away I wanted to die! I was so sure he was gonna kiss me!" he complained.

"Then why didn't you kiss him? You just grab his chin and the deal is closed!" Shiro exclaimed, throwing his arms up in the air in exasperation.

_That's the exact same thing I have been wondering about_ Red said, trying to sound nonchalant.

"Because I wasn't sure if he was going to kiss me!" Keith answered, and Shiro looked at him as if he was the most idiotic person he had ever met.

"Are you actually listening to yourself?" Shiro asked.

"It's just that when he turned away all I could hear was you telling me that maybe I was misreading the situation and think about how everything would come crashing to the ground if I kissed him and he didn't want to kiss me! What if he doesn't like boys? WHAT IF HE IS HOMOPHOBIC?" he started, voice raising its volume as he went on, Shiro having to put a hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"He is not homophobic, Keith. His sister is bisexual. And if he doesn't like boys then you will be heartbroken, but it will be okay because that's a part of life. I was devastated when Lila broke up with me, and look at me now," Shiro said, and Kieth pulled his hand away, before scanning his brother.

"I don't know how your situation has improved," he said, and Shiro bit his cheek, thinking.  
"Well... I pilot my own ship. I have my own team and new friends," he said, and Keith smiled mischievously.

"And a new girlfriend," he added, and Shiro rolled his eyes.

"Fuck off, Keith."

# \- - -

Allura enjoyed being powerful. Not in a mind and moral corrupting way, but in a "Hey, I can use my power for good!" way. She was a princess and captain of her own battleship, which already granted her a lot of power.

But there was something different about the power Ariela had described to her. Having that effect on people just because they lusted after you, or were in love with you or whatever the kind of attraction it was, left another taste in your mouth. You didn't have that power over someone because you were powerful, you had that power over someone because you made them weak. And she loved it.

So, when she appeared in the kitchen wearing Ariela's clothes and hair styled in two braids and Nallely's eyes opened slightly more than normal, she had to put an effort on choking back her smile.

"Are those Altean clothes?" Nallely asked as Allura sat in diagonal to her.

"No, this are human clothes. Ariela lent them to me. They are pretty, right?" she asked, turning a bit to each side, showing off and acting like she had no idea of the effect it had on the woman.

"Really pretty," the Grigkean nodded.

# \- - - 

That night they all settled down in the pillow pit and watched "Corpse Bride" and everyone went nuts. The aliens loved it, Allura actually joining Ariela and Lance when they got up to dance "Remains of the day", the rest of the paladins not knowing if they should watch the movie or the duo singing and dancing the song to Allura, who would happily chuckle and twirl around when the instrumental hit. That was how they discovered that the Latinos danced like the gods.

Keith wanted to die, as he watched Lance dancing to the jazz music like he was born to do that, sliding and snapping his fingers while dancing, grabbing Ariela and making her spin around.

It was no different with her. She didn't move, she slid through the floor as if she was ice-skating, making it looks so easy and effortless. She wasn't wearing a skirt, but Shiro didn't have trouble imagining how it would move with her, following her movements and flying every time she spun.

The group was even more pleased when the humans explained how the movie was made, in what the "stop motion" technique consisted on.

"That movie was spectacular!" Sugey exclaimed, clapping happily, as Coran (who had managed to actually stay awake this time) nodded along. "I hope we watch a movie just as good tomorrow!"

Everybody started to get up.

"I'll see you in my bedroom?" Ariela asked Shiro, as she stretched her muscles.

"I think I'm going to try to sleep alone tonight. Things have been quite tranquil lately," he answered, and she gave him a thumbs up before walking away.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -¡Mancha con mancha no engancha!: Mancha is the word people use in Spanish to talk about the tag game. The mancha is the person who has been tagged. The translation would be: Tagged with tagged don't connect or something like that, meaning what they said, you can't touch the person that touched you.
> 
> -Pasala: Pass it.
> 
> Hehehehehhe


	26. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Shit gets real. Stuff goes boom, people screams and cries, and more backstory, yay!

Shiro had been wrong about the nightmares not appearing that night, but he had already told Ariela that he would sleep alone, and he didn't really have the face to go to her bedroom once he managed to calm down from his nightmare (having to kill Keith at the gladiator arena), so he decided to do what a reckless college person would do when not being able to sleep.

He was watching "How to get away with murder", the sixth chapter, while curled up in a bundle of blankets when the alarm started blaring. Almost five seconds after, a loud, angry and hopeless "NO" could be heard even over the alarm and through closed doors. It was Ariela's voice.

Shiro disenabled the Mac one and ripped off the blankets off of him, as he started to get out of his pyjamas to get into the skin-tight lycra suit as fast as he could, already hearing screaming from the hallways. Keith was cursing loudly, Pidge was telling him to shut up and Lance was calling for his sister with angry tone. The man hadn't finished putting on the chest plaque of his armour when he commanded the door to open, finding all of the doors open, Keith already suited up and leaning in Ariela's door with his face a furious purple because of the deep blush.

"Keith, is everything okay?" Shiro asked, as he adjusted the plaque and walked towards the room, peeking in and discovering the reason of the blush. Lance, with the lycra suit half on (leaving him shirtless), was trying to wake up a stubborn Ariela, who had covered her ears with her pillow.

"Wake up you fucking shithead!" Lance screamed, hitting her on the side with his thigh plaque before starting to put it on. Ariela screamed, the sound muffled by the pillow, but she didn't move.

"Lance, language!" Shiro called, as he got into the room, wanting to laugh at Keith's inability to move, but knowing that time was gold in this situation.

"Yeah, Lance. Fuck off!" Pidge exclaimed from the hallway, actually making the man grin.

"I don't want to get up!" Ariela screamed in actual rage, as she thrashed around her bed, trying to mute the unbearable noise.

"DON'T MAKE ME SHOW THEM THE HAMILTON FOOTAGE!" Lance screamed, and Ariela shot her head up, Shiro immediately picking up on the bloodshot eyes and pale skin. She had had a hard night.

"DO IT FOR ALL I CARE! YOU ARE IN IT TOO, FUCKTARD!" she screamed, and Lance decided to take action, because he just slipped his hands under the blankets, grabbed Ariela's ankles and started pulling her out of the bed. The woman tried clawing at the mattress, but nothing could avoid her fall to the floor, and her brother just kept going, pulling her to the hallway.

" _LANCE LA REPUTÍSIMA MADRE QUE TE PARIO. TE VOY A ROMPER LA CAJETA, FORRO_ " she screamed fiercely, finally getting up in the middle of the hallway.

" _¡Dejá de berrear y calmate, bofe!_ Gear up!" he screamed at her, throwing the helmet right at her chest, but she caught it with her two hands and threw it to her bedroom. "I want you ready in less than two minutes!" he then stated, and she got in her bedroom, immediately starting to undress without caring for foreign eyes.

"Yeah, yeah. Whatever you say, mum!" she complained, pulling her sleeping shirt off quickly and tossing it to her bed, giving them her back. Shiro wanted to go away but just _good God_. She picked up her bra from the desk and quickly put it on, before taking off her sleeping shorts and grabbing the lycra suit.

"Are you conscious that if that alarm sounds it is an emergency?" Lance asked her, as he slid his arms through the sleeves of his suit, and the woman turned her head towards them. Hair messed up and covering her hair in some areas, suddenly looking too awake and in underwear. Shiro was going to have trouble _again_.

"This isn't a simulacrum?" she asked, and Lance shook his head. "OH SHIT!" she screamed, getting on the suit at an unbelievable speed. "WHY DIDN'T YOU TELL ME?" she shouted, already on the suit and putting on the plaques of her legs, as Lance got near and zipped up the back of her suit.

"WHY ELSE WOULD I BARGE IN YOUR BEDROOM WHILE THIS FUCKING ALARM IS BLARING?!" he asked in return, turning around without saying a word and the woman blindly zipping him up too. "WE HAVE LOST PRECIOUS TIME BECAUSE OF YOU, ARIELA! FUCK!" and that's when it hit the other two.

Lance was shaking. He was really nervous. They didn't know the situation yet. What if people had died in the time they had wasted? What if it was all his fault?

"C'mon guys, we don't want to waste any more time," Shiro said, slamming his hand against the wall several times to call the attention of the two siblings. Ariela started to run without looking, strapping her chest plaque at the speed of light, Lance following close. Shiro started running after them too, but when he noticed that Keith was still standing still he stopped. "Are you coming or you're too busy?" he asked, and Keith turned his head to him slowly. And, although at the beginning he looked really immersed in himself, he then picked up in the everything of Shiro, distinguishing several things that he hadn't seen ever since Lila had broken up with him.

"Those two are going to be the death of us," he mumbled, putting his helmet on and sprinting after the siblings.

# \- - -

"What is going on?" Ariela asked, once she arrived the control deck. She could hear Shiro and Keith running not far behind, and the rest was already there. Sugey was doing something on one of the Altean panels, fingers flying over the different touch buttons almost without looking, as her eyes followed every single movement that appeared on the small screen. Coran was looking at a holographic replica of a small planet, marking places with the rest.

"We received an SOS call from a planet nearby. We are almost in the middle of nowhere, so the Galra hadn't been interested in them, but they appeared a few minutes ago and are attacking. The planet is trying to resist, but they are really few people and even fewer war machines. They are in a hurry," Pidge explained quickly, as they neared the hologram.

It was a tiny planet, mostly made out of water and with one small continent. Towns and cities were being marked so that the paladins could avoid the areas to not cause so much damage.

"How bad is it?" Lance asked, scanning the map with serious eyes, and Ariela was short of breath. Who was that guy and what had he done with his seemingly careless brother?

Since when had he stopped acting like he didn't care to pretend he couldn't get hurt? She hadn't seen him like this in front of so many people since the Sean thing.

"A whole giant fleet. I don't have a good feeling about this," Hunk muttered, nervously biting his nails, his eyes fixated on what Sugey was doing. "Did you manage to download all the information into the lions?" he asked, raising his voice. Sugey answered without turning her eyes away from the screen.

"I did, and I managed to hack into Keskeuro's database and I have more information. They only have five hundred small battleships and a fifth has already been taken down. They are taking civils underground, but there are many left and there's no space for them all. We'll have to be extra careful," she answered, and Ariela forgot that she was only nine once again. _How?_

"She has been spending a lot of time with Pidge lately, and she learns really quickly," Nallely whispered, and the woman nodded in agreement.

"Voltron will be taking care of defending the front and pushing the fleet back. The panther and the castle will stay back and take care of them once they are out of a damageable zone," Shiro stated, appearing suddenly behind Hunk and almost giving him a heart attack. "Understood?"

"Yes, sir," they all muttered, starting to go away.

"Wait!" Allura exclaimed, and they all turned to her, but she was looking at Ariela. "I know this is the first fight where there will be civilians for you involved, and that the panther is known for damaging more than protecting," she started, blue eyes trying to impose her words onto the woman. "But if things get nasty, if one single ship manages to get on Kerkeuro's atmosphere I want you to go there and wreck it."

"Allura, I think it would be more convenient if the Castle is the one to go near. We don't know how the panther will get in a situation like this," Shiro started, but the princess shushed him.

"Sugey managed to catch a Galran transmission, from a commander to the one on the fleet. They are not here to colonise. They here to annihilate, Ariela. If they make it too near of the surface more people will die than if the panther does something typical of it. " There was a pause, no one knowing what to say, Lance looking at his sister with worried eyes, noticing how her eyes opened widely in panic. "Did you understand, Ariela? I don't want a single Galra putting a foot on that planet," Allura said. The aura around the paladin turned darker as she lowered her head, hair covering her face as she took in a deep breath to calm herself down, trying to stop the shaking of her hands.

"They won't make it there alive, at least," was all she said, and she turned around to run to the hangar, worried eyes following her with intensity, until Shiro clapped his hands and all the eyes flew back to him.

"Okay, team. Let's show them they shouldn't mess with us," he stated.

# \- - -

The Galra fleet was big indeed. Maybe it looked like it because of the lack of automatized land weapons and the surplus of manned ships. And the pictured kept getting darker and darker as they saw how Kerkeuro's ships exploded and floated around in pieces, the Galra eliminating them quickly, almost one by one.

They formed Voltron almost immediately, flying to the front of battle and putting the giant robot between the fleet and the atmosphere, sword in one hand and the other free to fire lasers, making the small ships explode and damaging the big ones. The effect was almost instantaneous, and the native ships retreated, the soldiers receiving orders to go down and help with the civilians and let Voltron do its job. And, despite Voltron was putting up a good fight, the fleet was far from retreating.

So Ariela and Bagheera made their way in between the ships, leaving leftovers of metal behind them.

Both robot and pilot had started out calm, holding down and not overdoing it, sticking to what Ariela had been told. When a Galra ship is pushed back, you tear it down. But as they reached the half an hour of battle and Voltron seemed too close to the atmosphere, the fleet not having been reduced to the half, Ariela gave in to the panther's insistence and said "Fuck it", not listening to Shiro ordering her to stay in place.

Then, they went into some sort of frenzy (one where she was not batshit crazy, but one where all she could think off was _finishing them_ ), and Ariela surprised herself thinking just how right it felt, as she watched a ship crash and explode on the panther's jaws. It was different from the trance, where she gave herself to the panther and just sat back helping him. Now she was there, sitting in the pilot's chair in the cockpit, very aware of her body and the presence of the panther on the back of her mind, who didn't have to talk before she already knew what it wanted. It was as if the part of her that was actually made for this connection had woken up, giving her the place as the leader and not just the pilot.

And, surprisingly, Bagheera did not say a word about it, he didn't complain, despite noticing the big change the second Ariela gave in. It was as if they had suddenly moulded together, the woman's mind keeping him at line.

_We need to weaken the mothership_ Bagheera said, and his voice was not the usual screaming tone, but a low grumble. He was focused and pleased with the results. There was a cemetery of ships behind them, and many had escaped by the sides when faced with the dilemma of choosing: Voltron or the panther?

"That's Voltron's job, not ours," she replied in almost a whisper, as she pointed and shot the mouth laser at a ship that had decided to charge against them. It evaded, but Ariela got him with the left paw, clawing their way through dark metal. She was feeling too calm for it to not be weird, the chill of the frenzy making her know she was going to feel sick once she stopped and realised the path of death they had left behind themselves. "How is the Castle doing?" she asked, over the intercom.

"We are getting the ones that try to escape and defending from the mother ship just fine," Coran answered, and Allura's voice could be heard on the background, shouting orders to them. "How is Voltron doing?" he asked.

The team opened their mics and it was the noise of panting and grunting. They were already exhausted.

"Rusty," Keith replied, as he cursed, Pidge barely managing to form the shield to stop the ray that had come from the mothership, ready to finish them.

"I don't know what's wrong, but... We are weaker," Hunk said. "It's like the bond between the ten of us is something hard to maintain," he explained himself.

"Stop thinking about anything that is not Voltron and pour yourselves into this!" Allura screamed over the intercom, the volume of her voice ringing in Ariela's ears and making her groan in actual pain. She had slept like shit that night, and the screaming didn't help with a headache that had been pushed to the back of her mind when her focus was put on the battle but was still there.

"Sorry." Surprisingly, it had come from Lance.

_What is wrong with the blue paladin?_ Bagheera asked, and was that concern on his voice? 

"I don't know. Could you ask Blue? He hasn't been talking to me much lately," Ariela whispered, even though her mic was closed. What month was it when Lance found her at the McClain's? July? Four months and something had gone by, so they should be somewhere in November. "Oh, I think I know," she said.

_Does the name Sean ring a bell? Because she says it's all he's thinking about_ Bagheera informed, but it didn't surprise her.

"Yes. It's... It's nothing. I'm not usually around for this time of the year, but I know he tends to get like this," she answered, flying the panther between two small ships to crash it against a medium one, causing a chain reaction.

_Who is Sean?_

"I'll tell you later. Now let's focus on the mission," she said. Bagheera made an agreement noise.

_You are really different. You are more like me_ he observed, surprising her a little bit before the woman regained her composure and kept on going at it, before a red light appeared on the screen, as Nallely started screaming.

"TWO SHIPS WENT PAST VOLTRON'S BLOCKING!"

"Ariela, this is your go. Be as careful as you can with the civilians," Allura said,

"Got it. Did you hear that, Bagheera?" she asked the panther, as she pushed the levers and sent the robot flying at max speed through the fleet, evading shots and zigzagging between ships, the panther already marking the two that were getting closer to the planet.

_If you keep thinking I'm going to kill someone I shouldn't you are going to make me totally nervous_ the panther grumbled, making her chuckle slightly, as they entered the atmosphere, already really close to the ships.

"We need to get them away from land to destroy them if we don't want the leftovers to fall upon civilians," she said, and her right hand flew without her telling it to do so, activating the jaws and biting down on one of the ship's wings. With a twist of his head, the ship was flying towards the ocean, spinning out of control.

_We'll chase this one to the ocean and then we destroy them_.

And that was what they did. They flew too close to the ground in moments, Ariela's eyes barely going over the crowds staring at them wide-eyed and with jaws dropped on the ground, screaming when the Galra ship shot its laser, but they managed to avoid it hurting anybody, and get it to the water where the another ship was floating, black smoke coming from its wing.

With a bang the flying ship was gone, at the same time screams were heard on the intercom.

"LANCE, WHAT THE FUCK?" Pidge screamed, and Ariela turned to see how Voltron had dissolved, the blockage weak and many ships slipping between the lions.

"Crap," she said, panic starting to rise through her mind before the panther shut it down. "FORM VOLTRON AGAIN AND HELP ME!" she screamed.

"We can't! Lance, focus!" Shiro screamed, and Ariela could distinguish her brother's ragged breathing in the audio. Oh, god, that could not be good.

The ships got closer to the city that was the capital and started shooting, houses catching on fire and civilians running around in collective panic.

"FUCK VOLTRON, MAN! COME DOWN HERE INDIVIDUALLY AND HELP ME!" she screamed, feeling rage starting to boil in her stomach, as she saw how a ship landed on a park and soldiers started to get down, quickly pushing Keuskereans to the ground and getting ready to shoot. Hunk's targeting missiles took care of most of them quickly.

"It's land time, I think," she said. "Do you think you can do it? Protect the capital from the air and I'll do it from the ground without getting out of control?" Ariela asked the panther. There were a few seconds of silence, with Bagheera's mind going at the speed of light. It was for her to catch everything, but she recognised bits and pieces. He was thinking about her, and her brain and something else, how it had changed. 

_Get ready to be spat out_ the robot answered, and then effectively spat her out, Ariela flying, crashing, rolling and getting up, bayard already shifted in swords and, before running towards the nearest Galra soldier alive she saw, cutting through skin and bone without thinking.

The noise around her was something bizarre for her, like out of an Avengers movie. Explosions, propellers, panicked screams, Galran shouting orders, battle cries and growls. Every time they got near her she could hear the growl and she would reciprocate it, surprising the soldiers before killing them.

"Ariela? Can you hear me?" Sugey asked as the woman stabbed a soldier through the back.

"Loud and clear."

"They are going after you. There are no intentions of killing, they want to kidnap you," she told her. "Beware. I would advise you to go back to your robot."

"I'll be alert, Sugey. Thank you for the info," she said, as she kept fighting against the soldiers that kept arriving. "How many are there left?" she asked, but no one could answer her before they saw a loud explosion on the side of the blue lion, it nosediving into a wasteland not far from the city.

"FUCK! Blue is not responding!" Lance screamed before there were a loud crash and an exclamation of pain.

"Lance!" Ariela called, turning to see the column of black smoke rising from where the Blue lion had fallen. In that second she turned around, a ship caught her with a ray, the feeling of not being able to move paralyzing her mind in panic. One second her feet were on the ground and at the other she was being lifted into the air, but then the panther appeared, trapping her on his mouth and flying away, the ship following them closely.

_That was too close!"_ Bagheera told her angrily, not happy that she had almost gotten taken away.

"LIKE IT'S MY FAULT!"

There were another explosion and the panther shook, sending Ariela flying against the metal walls, and then it all went dark.

# \- - -

The Castle had gotten near, using its targeting weapons (similar to Gold's) to destroy everything that had gone past Voltron's blockage. And, thanks to that, only two ships were left, which Shiro cut in half with Black's blade.

Everything was a mess, rests of space ships littering the land and ocean, civilians running in circles, still screaming because they didn't really know if they were safe yet.

"How is everyone?" he asked.

"LIKE IT'S MY FAULT!" Ariela screamed, probably talking to the panther, and then there was the sound of an explosion and her line filled with static.

"Ariela?" he asked, turning Black just to see how the panther, engulfed in flames, fell into the ocean and started sinking quickly. "Guys, something got the panther!" he  
screamed. "Where are you?"

"I'm with Lance, he is barely conscious," Hunk answered.

"I'm..." Keith started, and his breathing was shallow. He was panicking. "I'm trying to put off a fire here. Pidge?"

"I'm in space," the girl answered.

"Allura, can the lions submerge in water?" Shiro asked, already flying Black to where he had seen the panther sink, trying to ignore the prickling that was raising through his body, thoughts of Ariela being dead haunting the back of his mind as he tried to push them away. She just couldn't be dead.

"Yes," the princess answered, and Black nosedived into the ocean.

The panther was there, slowly falling into the abyss, and there was something dark coming from his open mouth. Black got closer and Shiro discovered Ariela, unconscious and with a pretty nasty cut on her head, where the blood was coming from.

"I need you to eject me, Black," he said, as he closed his helmet. In a few seconds, he was already out, the suit clearly helping him maintain his body temperature in the freezing water, swimming as fast as he could those five meters that separated him from the woman. Her lips were already purple, despite having entered the water a minute ago tops, and she looked worryingly pale.

Shiro grabbed her by the arms and started swimming back, Black quickly letting him in, filtering the water.

"I've got Ariela. She's unconscious and hurt, I don't know if she didn't drown," Shiro spoke in the mic, and while he was taking his helmet off he heard a really weak "Ari" being said, Lance's voice raspy and out of breath. Shiro put his fingers under the woman's nose and started rushing when he noticed that air wasn't coming out.

He took her chest plaque off, put his hands over her chest and started pumping strongly, counting each compression out loud, as he felt the prickling in his skin getting stronger. Half of his brain was reviewing his CPR lessons over and over, and the other half was thinking unhelpful stuff. What if she actually dies here because you are not enough? What if you actually kill her, like you have done to many others? Who is going to carry your dead weight if she is not around anymore?

"Thirty," he said, before tilting the woman chin's upwards to open her breathing channel. One hand on her forehead and the other pinching her nostrils, Shiro leant in and gave one-minute long breath on the woman's mouth, watching her chest. Luckily, it rose. A second breathing. "Cycle two," he muttered, before starting with the compressions again.

"Shiro? How is she?" Pidge was asking, her voice coming out worried and scared from the helmet, but he didn't answer, keeping his count out loud.

The panic hit fully when he reached half of the third cycle and Ariela hadn't moved a muscle.

_This is it, Shirogane. This is your biggest fuck up. You killed her just like you killed Yerik. More blood in your fucking hands_. The words boomed on the walls of his brain, making it hard for him to control his breathing, as he was trying to push images away from his brain. He hadn't remembered until now, but in that moment he could perfectly see his friend's lifeless body under him, eyes out as he desperately tried to save him before the soldiers took him away.

"Thirty," he said, voice cracked as he tried to not break down right then and there while leaning in again and breathing in Ariela's mouth.

He was through half of it when a hand slammed against his arm and the woman starting spitting sweet water out of her lungs, grasping at Shiro's uniform. He moved away and she turned to her side, spitting more and more water, a puddle forming in front of her.

When she was done, she let herself drop on her back again, breathing ragged and harsh, but with an incredulous smile on her lips, quickly realising what had happened, as she closed her eyes and relaxed. There was this sharp pain on her head that was killing her.

"No, no. Ariela, I need you to be awake", Shiro told her, voice still cracked, and she opened her eyes slightly, a frown taking over her face.

"Hey," she said softly, slowly raising a hand to cup his face. "Why are you crying?"

In response, Shiro grabbed her and sat her up on the floor, hugging her closely to his chest and burying his face in the crook of her shoulder, giving up on fighting the tears back and just letting himself go.

"I thought you were going to die in my arms," he said, hating how much he sounded like a child. Ariela had already started rubbing circles on his back.

"I'm alive, Shiro. Probably thanks to you, so don't cry," she told him. "You need to calm down, okay? I still... I still need to go to the healing pods," she said, noticing the stickiness of her own blood on Shiro's suit. He started nodding.

"Yeah, you are right," he said, getting up and taking her and his helmet along with him, as he quickly strode towards the pilot's chair. "Do you think you can remain sitting alone?" he asked, and she shook her head. She could barely stay awake. He sat down on the chair, Ariela dropping herself on him, and he put on his helmet. "Guys?"

"SHIRO! JESUS CHRIST, YOU WEREN'T ANSWERING? HOW IS SHE?" Hunk asked, his screams sounding over the rest of the team's voices.

"She's awake, but she has lost a lot of blood. I need you to get ready a healing pod and to get the panther out of the sea," he said, and no one asked why his voice sounded like that, although Kieth had been about to do it.

# \- - -

When Lance woke up he felt all of the panic that had been there when he finally passed out appear again, making him almost sprint out of the healing pod, if it hadn't been for his weak legs. Someone had shot his lion, she hadn't responded, they had crashed and Ariela had drowned. It was only this if you didn't count the fact that because of him they had almost failed misserably at the mission.

He turned around and there was Ariela, sleeping peacefully on the pod next to his. She had a cut that was healing on her forhead and that probably continued on her head. Her skin was paper-white, making the dark circles under her eyes stand out, just as her purple lips, but she was alive.

Lance put his hand on the crystal of the pod, closing his eyes. 

"I did this to you... Just like I did to him," he whispered, feeling the need to punch something really hard, when a hand clamped him on the shoulder. He saw Nallely (hair pulled back in a pony tail, black shirt and brown pants) on the reflection of Ariela's pod.

"She will be fine. Probably in a few hours she will be out," she told him, smiling awkwardly at him. Lance didn't even look at her.

"How long was I out?" he asked.

"It's almost midnight, and they brought you here before noon," was her answer. "I would tell you to eat something, but your family called while I was on the training deck, and I promised I would tell you do call them back when you woke up," she said. "They were really worried, both for you and Ariela."

"Where is the rest?"

"Shiro, Keith, Pidge and Allura are on Keskeuro, fixing stuff and helping civilians. Coran, Hunk and my sister are repairing the panther," she answered. That was when Lance turned to her, with gleamy eyes.

"They already repaired Blue?" he asked, and Nallely shook her head.

"Blue didn't need repairs. They think that you were too far away and that the explosion only weakened your bond with her more, so that was why she wouldn't answer," Nallely explained to him, and she really looked uncomfortable doing so. She didn't want to be the one breaking such news to him, but she also didn't like lying to people.

"Really?" he inquired, and she nodded. "So, did my family call long ago?" he asked, already walking out of the room.

"Like fifteen seconds ago," Nallely said.

"Thank you, Nallely, and..." he started, waiting for a second. "Could you take care of her while I'm gone?" Lance asked, his eyes going to Ariela.

"Don't worry, Lance," Nallely said, already sitting down on te stairs. "She is tougher than she seems," she finished, and he snorted.

"I know," he said, "but even the Earth can shatter."

# \- - - 

"Oh, god, Lance. If mum knew about this she would drop dead and go back as a ghost to haunt our asses," Flynn said, rubbing her temple with her fingers, eyes closed as she tried so hard not to punch his brother's face on the screen.

He had spoken to all of his family, but then he had asked his sister to stay. Apparently, the rest of the paladins had already used their daily call, so he had all the time he wanted to speak with his sister. And he needed it, because he knew well that Flynn was the one with the strongest stomach for this kind of stuff, and also a great secret-keeper.

"It was all my fault, sis," he said, sighing, and she opened her eyes to look at him. They were the only two of the four first brothers with blue eyes, and maybe that was what made them so similar, besides their attitudes. Adrian and Dominique had brown eyes, Annalise had Alec's grey eyes and the twins too. "I was too busy thinking about Sean..." he started, but she cut him short by slamming her hands against the desk.

"Sean's death was not your fault, Lance. You made everything you could to help him. If someone is guilty, it is those idiots of your ex-classmates," she said, voice fierce trying to intimidate Lance's insecurity.

"But it was because of me that they bothered him. And..." he started, already feeling the knot in his throat, so he stopped. "And I won't be there for him this time either," he added. Flynn sighed longly.

"You won't come because you are out there, putting your life on the line for seven billion of people, bro-bro. I will bring him the flowers, don't worry," she said, with a soft and awkward smile stretching her lips slightly.

# \- - -

_He was the prisoner in the cell next to his. They would talk constantly, comparing customs from the places they came from, joking together and cheering each other up when one of them came back too hurt from the arena. They turned into best friends after a few days, already knowing each other's lives._

_And then, one day, they had to fight each other._

_Shiro suddenly remembered the mix of both physical and emotional pain as he fought Yerik all too well. He had beaten the life out of him when he finally realised it was kill or get killed in this case too. And then it was the regret and panic, as he tried to reanimate him, avoiding the ice blue lifeless eyes as if they were the plague._

_That had been two days before they took him to the druids, in both situations the guards had had to drag him across the arena, with him clawing at the ground and screaming bloody murder, trying to hold onto something._

_A partner, or his sanity, maybe._

_It only hit him hours later, when he was using Black to carry debbris of the Galran ships out of civil areas._

_There were more humans as prisoners of the Galra. The Galra had actuallly made it to Earth, recently._

# \- - -

"It looks as if it had been blasted from the inside," Hunk muttered, still confused.

Him, Coran and Sugey were on the panther's hangar. They had used the weird materials the royal adviser had brought them, and Hunk found himself following blindly his every command, slowly starting to understand the most complex parts of the machine. The panther's blueprints were on a table near them, and the hole that had been opened on the side of the panther had already been closed. Coran was doing the wiring, sitting on the head, while Sugey just wandered on the inside of the panther, and Hunk inspected the pictures they had taken off the panther while it was still damaged.

"I know, but there is no way that happened," Coran answered. Hunk, not accordant, shook his head.

"Still. When the panther exploded, we had already taken all the ships down. What could had blasted it?" Hunk asked, not looking at the pictures anymore, and watching as Coran turned to look at him, stopping the work and just thinking.

"Something could have malfunctioned," Coran proposed, but Hunk groaned.

"No, I had made a general check this week. Everything was perfectly fine. Besides, these robots are the smoothest ones I've ever seen. Something couldn't just..., go boom," he answered, and Sugey appeared, poking her head from the panther's open mouth.

"I might have found something interesting," she said, as she walked into the hangar again, carrying pieces of metal in her arms. She dropped them on a table and quickly started working, recognising figures and putting them together at a speed that had Hunk amazed. By the time she finished, a box made out of dark grey metal was sitting in front of them, big as one of the tool boxes he had left back at home. Many pieces were still missing, but the lid was almost complete and somehow it still could stay put.

"While I was cleaning the inside from water I found stains of something black on the walls and on the edges of the whole on the side," she started. "I just thought it had been because of the heat of the laser that had burnt through, but look here," she added, signalling a place where there was something like a whole on the lid of the box. "This looks like a place where a panel would go. Do you know what sometimes comes in boxes, has panels and makes things explode?"

"Bombs," Hunk answered immediately.

"The black thing I found could be something like gunpowder," she added, looking at Hunk with big and smart eyes.

"But that would mean..." he started, but Coran cut him short, making them turn around to look at him. He looked ready to murder someone.

"That means we have a traitor on the ship."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -LANCE LA REPUTÍSIMA MADRE QUE TE PARIO. TE VOY A ROMPER LA CAJETA, FORRO: LANCE, YOU SON OF A BITCH! I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR CROTCH, ASSHOLE!
> 
> ->¡Dejá de berrear y calmate, bofe!: Stop fighting and calm down, idiot!
> 
> I'm so sorry it took so long to publish this chapter, I just wasn't feeling really well and I felt like my writing sucked, so...  
> Anyway, we are going to have so much more backstory on the next chapters, and a someone's secret will be revealed. The ships are going to get spicy, be it in the sexual or in the "I'll fling you into space" way, and I better shut up now.  
> Also, Hunk's headcanons are already ready. You can see it, along with Lance's, Ariela's and Pidge's heacanons and Ariela's and Lance's aesthetics in my blog ( http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/ ). Soon I will be uploading more headcanons and aesthetics.  
> Love you! -Q


	27. [NOT UPDATED]

The Galra part in Keith was starting to kick in again, making his performance and help in fixing the places that had been damaged in battle pathetic. Red and Shiro kept scolding him, voices sounding strong and exasperated on his brain as he tried to push the thoughts and feelings away from him. 

There was this void in the middle of his chest that he couldn't fill with anything, it had been there since he had heard Lance screaming in pain and had become stronger after seeing Ariela pass out when she seemed to be just fine.

Those two things had caused the same feelings in him as a troop of Galran soldiers marching towards his unarmed team. Lance was pale, small cuts here and there, but he still managed to walk on his own to the healing pod, although he would groan from time to time as he was hobbling. He had wanted to reach out for him, pick the paladin up and drop him in his bed, to curl around him and nurse him back to health. It was this primal instinct that made him sick in the stomach. And, once Lance was in the healing pod, Shiro walked in with an arm around Ariela's waist, who was joking as she slowly and weakly walked towards another pod. She had swatted Shiro's arm away and given three steps before her eyes rolled back and she collapsed into the floor, Shiro barely being able to avoid her head hitting the floor hard. In that mere second the air had been filled with pain, terror and desperation, and knowing it all came from his pack members made him feel even worse.

So, being out of the Castle until dawn, without knowing about his teammate's state hadn't been good for him and without sleeping made him feel like shit, but the second Red's propellers were off he was running, trying to calculate. Should they be out already? If they were out, where would they be? He hadn't even taken off his armour, less his helmet, but he was deaf to Shiro's orders of taking a shower and getting some rest; all he could pay attention to was the faint trail of that scent he loved so much, that started to get stronger as he neared the common area.

The doors slid open and he immediately spotted Lance. He was sitting in middle of the pillow pit, wrapped in a blanket and slowly sipping something hot from a white mug, as he kept his eyes nailed on the screen that was playing "Toy story".

His head was screaming. He wasn't quite sure what but it was warm and good, two things that he hadn't felt in what he thought was a long time. His brain was going over Lance's face over and over again, happily noticing that some of the usual colour was back and that the cuts were gone, as he mindlessly started to walk closer to his teammate, ripping the helmet off of him and the rest of his armour pieces.

Lance's eyes flew towards him.

"Hey, Kieth. How you doing?" he asked with a soft smile, and the red paladin noticed the tired eyes and..., something else. Maybe it was because of this kind of mindless state where he just gave in to his senses and instincts, but there was this new thing he was feeling that was completely unknown. It was as if something was crashing onto him, covering all of his senses. It tasted like sea water and smelt like sea air, the feeling against his skin being the one of foam slowly dissolving in him, creeping more over his body as he got closer to Lance, chest plaque already off. He could hear the soft rumble of waves and something else that touched him somewhere that wasn't his body. It was a noticeable pressure, but warm and totally pleasant, as if he had asked for it as if he knew it would make him feel good. It felt like home.

"I was so worried," he mumbled, as he dropped to his knees in front of the blue paladin, pillows softening the impact for his already protected knees, and he found himself looking into surprised blue eyes, searching for any hint of discomfort or anything negative so that he could fix it, hands slowly going up to rest on Lance's shoulders.

"What?" he asked in a confused whisper, so full of feeling it had the same impact as a scream. Keith's thumb quickly found his pulse point on his slender neck and pressed, the feeling of blood rushing through veins calming him to a ridiculous extent, as he let his head drop on Lance's chest and hugged his teammate closer.

"I was so worried," he repeated, and Lance slowly left his mug on the sofa, to wrap his arms around Keith too. The pressure on Keith's _something_ grew, but it was still welcomed, it even felt better than before. 

Woody was getting a hole burnt in his forehead by the time Keith realised what he had done. He immediately started to push himself away, although half of his brain was screaming and battling against that so hard it almost made him hug the blue paladin again.

"I'm sorry," he said, before standing up and quickly picking up the pieces of his armour to leave the room, leaving a wordless Lance behind.

# \- - -

Shiro and Allura were heading to the healing room to check on Ariela when Hunk found them and told them that they had to talk, his face incredibly worried and making a void on Shiro's stomach form, but the one that got most affected by the thing they had to talk about was, surprisingly, Allura.

Coran's voice was like white noise, the princess' eyes unfocused as the man kept on explaining his theories to them, pointing at the pictures of the panther's damaged area, which had already been repaired. And no one could blame her, as Coran's first words had been "There is a traitor in the ship", followed by a name that she didn't like hearing in such situation.

"Are you sure about this, Coran?" Shiro asked, eyes focused and arms crossed over his chest, trying to look as tough and serious as he could when being about to pass out from exhaustion.

It had already dawned, the two small suns of the planet shining over the horizon. The one's that were conscious and not needed in the ship had been out all day and night, helping civilians to fix stuff and trying to get an alliance with the king. "If you don't fulfil our requirements for an alliance I want you out of my planet in two days. You almost got us all killed!" had been the last words shouted at her, as a heavy door bathed in gold closed right in front of her face, almost hurting her nose. They were all ready to drop on the nearest soft surface and wait for the sweet embrace of sleep (and maybe even death) to take them. But no, she had to deal with this new crap. 

"The Grigkeans have betrayed us before. Why wouldn't they do it again?" was the man's answer. Hunk did not agree with that, but it was true that there was no other logical answer. No one besides them had been on the Castle, and there were only two people in it that they didn't really know.

"Why would she betray us?" Allura whispered, focusing her eyes on the royal adviser, those being the first words she had said since she had dropped on a chair that had appeared from the floor in the control deck.

"To give us to Zarkon like they had planned from the very beginning!" he exclaimed, but she shook her head.

"Why would she save us then? It just doesn't make sense!" the princess shouted, and Coran gestured her to calm down.

"The ones that were going to hand us to Zarkon were the Grigkeans from the capital. The ones her village hates. Maybe she took us away from them to get a deal that would benefit her village and wipe the others out of the map. It makes perfect sense!" he explained, and Allura felt herself getting smaller, as the fact that it indeed made sense sank into her. She turned to look at Shiro, but he did seemed convinced.

"You don't think..." she started, but he looked at her with tired and sad grey eyes.

"I don't know, Allura. It seems the only reasonable explanation to me," was his answer. The princess let her face drop into her hands, as she just reviewed all of the interactions she had had with the suspect.

_If you would take me as a soldier, I would feel honoured_. The same woman that had avoided her getting captured and said that to her while blushing madly couldn't be the same person that had almost killed one of her paladins, but there were no more options. "What do you suggest we do, Coran?" she finally asked, lifting her face from the place where she had hidden it.

# \- - -

Ariela had a nightmare while she was on the healing pod. It involved druids and her, having to fight against Shiro on the arena. She was the one that made him that nasty cut on the bridge of his nose, before chuckling and killing him. But when she woke up, the doors of the pod opening and letting her fall forward, the memory of the nightmare was gone, only the bad taste in her mouth and the feeling of void in her chest being left behind, but she couldn't pay it too much attention, because her legs felt weak and she had to keep herself standing, or at least manage to slide into the floor, which she did, panting from the effort.

"Ariela!" a voice exclaimed, and soon fast steps were going towards her, a pink pair of shoes appearing in front of her eyes before the girl dropped to the floor to be at her eye level.

"Hey! Why are you crying, Su?" she asked the girl, as she cupped the girl's face and watched her pout as she shed more tears. The white around her lilac irises was red from crying, just like her nose, and she had scratch marks over her arms. Had she done that to herself?

"You have to help me, Ariela. They think Nallely put the bomb on the panther and made Shiro lock her up in on of the cells. I'm scared they are going to kill her," she explained, making Ariela's golden eyes open wide in surprise.

"What? Begin from the top," she asked the girl, and she sniffed while nodding before starting again.

"I discovered rests of a bomb on the inside of the panther, so we know that the panther exploded from the inside. Coran thinks that Nallely was the one to put it in there and he convinced Hunk, Shiro and Allura, so they threw her in a cell and started interrogating her. But she didn't do anything. You believe me, right?" Sugey said, at the speed of light, and Ariela started nodding even before she finished her question.

"Of course I believe you, Sugey. Take me to them right now," she said, starting to slowly get up.

# \- - -

"Why did you do it, Nallely?" Allura asked, looking into the woman's eyes through the glass. She was mad, and there was also a hint of betrayal in the lilac irises, but she couldn't give in. If this was the person that had almost gotten Ariela killed, then there was no room for personal emotions to appear and cloud her judgement.

"I don't know. I would tell you if I had done it!" she answered, voice outraged, as she massaged her bicep to calm down. She had pulled a muscle while punching Shiro in the face. Seeing the bright red stains on the man's face made her feel a little bit better, but remembering how he had picked her up and thrown her in a cell didn't.

"Do you realise that there is no way of proving you innocent?" Allura kept pushing, and Nallely turned and punched the glass between out of sheer anger, wanting to smile when the princess didn't even flinch. That was another thing to fall for.

"Just as there is nothing to prove me guilty," she spat out through gritted teeth, and Shiro frowned at the way her voice was dripping venom.

"What the fuck is going on?" Ariela's voice boomed in the room, and all the eyes turned to her. She was in the black lycra suit from their uniform, so she had had to go there right after she came out of the healing pod. She was really pale and there were circles under her eyes, trying to give away that the fire heating the gold would soon melt and show just how tired she was. Her hands were trembling and, if you paid attention, you could see her vaguely swishing from side to side, but it was enough to make the black paladin want to pick her up and take her to her room. She always took care of him, and now it had to be his turn. finger at him. There was a flash of worry in her eyes when she noticed the red punch marks on the man's face, but it was gone as soon as it had arrived.

"Don't you try to distract me with your leader voice and your square jaw, Shirogane. I know a fake case when I see one," she said, making Shiro's eyes open widely and not letting him even move an inch as she fiercely walked past him. "Why do you think she was the one to do it when there are no proofs of it?" she asked Allura, who gave a step back.

"She is the only solid suspect we have, Ariela. It couldn't be anyone else!" Coran chimed in, making golden eyes boiling with anger turn to him. Her eyebrows were knitted, and Allura didn't know if it was because she was mad or because of the effort she was putting in standing right.

"I don't fucking care you don't have an answer for what happened, it doesn't give you an excuse to blame it on someone innocent!" she exclaimed, pointing at Nallely with her hand without looking at her.

"Thank you!" the Grigkean exclaimed, letting her arms fall to her sides with a slap.

"Okay. Let's all chill and talk calmly. Shouting won't lead us nowhere," Hunk said, and this time it actually worked, making the tension between Ariela and Coran fade away.

"There is no way to prove she wasn't on the panther's hangar recently, Ariela," Coran said, after taking a deep breath. And Ariela opened her mouth to reply, but then it all went to shit.

A wall exploded, the power of it sending pieces of metal flying everywhere just like the bodies of the people in there, that fell to the floor and tried to protect themselves from the debris flying in their direction. A cloud of dust rose, making it impossible to see, and then the power went out causing the lights to turn off and the doors of the cells to rise.

"Don't let her escape!" Coran screamed as Allura tried to get up. She could feel blood coming out from a cut on her face and the dust was making her lungs ache. A hand suddenly closed around her arm and helped her to get up, before blindly guiding her out of the cloud of dust. She recognised Nallely's black hair immediately when she was finally able to see.

"Are you okay?" she asked, before grabbing Allura and pulling her closer to look at the cut on her face. The blood was rushing madly on the princess' veins, following the rhythm of her heartbeat, as she stared incredulously into the worried lilac eyes.

"Why didn't you run away?" she asked, but Nallely frowned as if she was mad at her.

"Are you okay?" she repeated as if Allura was stupid, and she didn't relax until the woman nodded in reply. "Why would I run away if I'm not guilty?" she asked then, before letting Allura go and trotting back into the dust cloud to get the rest out of there.

Allura felt weak, and she started doubting who had the power over who in that moment.

# \- - -

Coran had ran towards the control room the second he was able to get up and restarted the energy of the Castle, activating the vents. The cloud of dust finally dissipated and Allura and Nallely found Shiro hunched over Ariela, trying to protect her from the debris that had actually fallen on him and even cut through his back, as she grabbed her head in pain. The sound of the explosion had given her a major headache, and all she could do was grind her teeth together and groan as it slowly faded away. And he was trembling, his muscles suddenly feeling week but also being unable to move, as the sound of the explosion boomed in his brain over and over again. It somehow had reminded him of the roar of blood-thirsty Galras watching the duels in the arena, taking him back there.

Hunk had to take over the whole "calming-Shiro-down" stuff this time, as Ariela could barely open her eyes without the light making her whine in pain. Despite that, Nallely still had to hold her back from pushing the yellow paladin aside and helping Shiro herself. It was making feel desperate knowing he was in dispair and not being able to help, so she just started to tell Hunk what to do. Not surprisingly, Hunk's sweet voice and words worked to perfection, having learnt how to deal with this watching the woman from afar and feeling really proud of himself when he felt Shiro's breathing become regular and his eyes focused on his face.

Once they were all together and okay (Shiro's back badged up poorly, as he had refused to go to the healing pods), they walked towards the huge hole that had been opened in the wall to their right, Allura immediately cursing.

The bomb that had exploded had been placed in one of the propellers, which was now the definition of wrecked. Repairing it would take a week with the Castle's usual workforce, but now there were only two knowing people, so it could take a whole year. If Shiro started helping immediately they would take at least nine months, but he was still weak from the breakdown (that had probably been caused because of a mix of adrenaline, fear and exhaustion that had messed with his mind badly) and knowledgeless, Keith was nowhere to be seen and Lance was too weak to help.

"We are totally screwed," Allura muttered, slowly dropping to her knees and hiding her face between them.

"I think we have enough materials to fix everything, overall because the metal you used for the Castle is reshapable and really magic and weird, but we don't have enough workforce to do it," Hunk said, as he eyed the destroyed propeller. His eyes didn't miss the metal crawling back into place in some parts, but it was too slow. The Castle would take years to repair itself.

"It is impossible to have this fixed in less than two days, and by what you told us about the king if we don't leave in two days they will nuke the Castle. Besides, let's say we actually repair the Castle we still have a crazy bomber on the loose!" Ariela was walking in circles like a jailed feline, going over everything wrong about their situation with trembling hands and weak steps, even stumbling from time to time. She was tired, at least her body was, but she refused to sleep until this was all settled.

"We need an alliance, Allura. How bad is it that you refused so hard?" asked, putting a hand on the woman's shoulder, making her unbury her face.

"Alliances with Keuskerians involve participating in their rituals. The closest to the date to be exact. And they can be plain bizarre or even vicious. I don't want to take that risk," she explained, looking at him over her shoulder.

"Allura, it's either pushing a virgin into a volcano or losing it all," Hunk joked, making the princess frown and Ariela snort.

"Thank god I decided to be a slut and not wait until marriage," she muttered, before feeling everyone's eyes on her. "Oh, come on, people. It's sex! Who waits until marriage nowadays?" she asked.

"I think that the only one that knows what you are talking about is me," Shiro said, with a crooked smile, making her stuck her tongue out at him. Hunk rolled his eyes. How old did Shiro think he was?

"Well, in the worst case we have to throw Lance into a volcano. That's fine by me! I have like..., three other brothers back on Earth!" she joked, putting a hand on Allura's shoulder, but the fun on her face quickly faded away when the princess' eyes were on her. "Whatever it is we have to do it, Allura. Don't worry, we always manage to survive against the odds," she added.

"If you could kill the oviti with a pathetic knife you can calmly push a virgin into a volcano," Nallely said, following the thread of the joke and gaining a proud look from all the humans present, and a soft and broken smile from Allura, that looked at her with teary eyes. "Why are you crying? What did I say now?" the Grigkean asked worriedly, and Allura laughed loudly.

"We have a killer hiding in the castle and our only chance to survive might be allying with sociopaths and... And you are joking about sacrificing virgins," she laughed/cried, before covering her face with her hands. "Everything is falling apart and you still manage to joke about it."

The three of them looked at each other as if they had broken something. That "oh, Christ, we screwed up" look.

"We didn't mean to offend you. It's just how humans and apparently Nallely deal with bad stuff, joking. You have surely heard Lance talking some time," Shiro started.

"No, no. Don't get me wrong. I admire you for it," she replied, looking at the black paladin with gleaming eyes, before sighing and getting up again. "We have to tell them now about the alliance and get out of here until we figure out a way to discover who has been causing all of this damage," Allura said, but Coran groaned.

"I don't want to leave the Castle alone with a bomber on the loose, like Ariela said. Why don't you go to arrange the alliance and we stay here?" he asked. "I'm sure we will find a way to bring some light to this darkness."

"Yay, let's stay in the haunted hotel where people has died, nothing bad will happen," Hunk mumbled under his breath, and Ariela laughed again.

# \- - -

Shiro was in charge of the "find the crazy one" mission, and also the "put Ariela to fucking sleep" mission. The first one was the easiest. He had taken her to her bedroom and tried to somehow lock the door from the outside, but she had walked out of there with the "I'm a bad bitch" song actually playing from the inside of her bedroom and Shiro had just rolled her eyes and told her to at least sit down while they discussed ways of finding the attempted murderer.

So now Coran, Nalley, Sugey, Ariela, Hunk and him were in the common room. The man had made some kind of hologram whiteboard appear and they were writing down ideas, as they all worked together to actually keep Ariela laying down on one of the sofas. By the time Lance, Keith and Pidge found them they were already running out of ideas, and Coran's crappy handwriting not helping them to concentrate as they went over the options that they had already said. The most legible word was "boobytraps" marked in a red circle.

"Okay, do we have security cameras?" Ariela asked as Coran wrote the idea on the board with his fingers.

"We do, but they don't record," he answered, and then he crossed it out.

"What is going on?" Keith asked, with raspy voice that let them know he had just slept. He was in a clean grey shirt and jeans. Lance, on the other hand, was in his pyjamas and looked wide awake.

"You three..." Shiro started, as he got closer and erased the word "boobytraps" from the list, ignoring Ariela's angry look (it had been her idea), and turning to face the trio. "Just missed an explosion," he finished, crossing his arms and leaning into the wall.

"Where were you?" Ariela asked, without looking at them, as she opened an internet browser and actually searched for "how to catch a criminal" one her cellphone, making Hunk quirk an eyebrow and choke back a sudden burst of laughter.

"I was at the library," Lance answered immediately and Keith turned to him, frowning but with a slight smirk that (obviously) Lance missed, although Shiro, Ariela and Hunk didn't.

"I was showering," Keith said then, avoiding the part where he slept through an explosion.

"And I was tinkering," Pidge finished, before running and jumping into a sofa. "Make it short, fellas, we're on the clock here," she said, and Coran proceeded to tell them everything that had happened since their last night discovery to the present.

"And here we are, sitting calmly," Lance said after Coran finished the story. "There might be some witnesses," he added, trying to help.

"We don't know when the bomb was put and, in the case of the panther, the only witness would be the robot," Shiro replied, and Ariela's head shot up, before turning to look at him slowly.

"The robot. The _sentient_ piece of metal that has the ability to project his memories into my head," she said, and Shiro's eyes opened widely too. "Is there any way we can watch what there's in my head?" she asked. Coran nodded.

"You all go to the hangar, I'll go looking for the mental projectors. Meet you there."

And they all set off running.

# \- - -

 _You are telling me that the person that did this to us went right in front of my nose and I didn't see them?_ was Bagheera's reaction to the whole story. He was being bombarded and not only by his paladin but by the lions too, as they were trying to back everything the paladins said up. It was a mess of hysterical female voices that made his head hurt.

"You might have been distracted with me!" Ariela replied, sitting down on the floor with trembling legs. Without noticing that he was mirroring her actions, he laid down on the floor too, looking at her worriedly. He didn't like the tiredness he could feel in his paladin's brain, although he was sure that with a good night of sleep she would be ready to go again.

_I guess the fastest we finish with this the better_ he sighed wanting her to get some rest, and Ariela smiled at him, as she placed the weird mental projector in her head.

"Okay. Let's start with the night before the battle, okay?" she asked, dragging the words as she was already being pulled into the bond, her feelings mixing with Bagheera's and making her drift out of her body to be in his.

The rest was watching the image really focused. They noticed movement at the door, but it turned out to be Ariela in her pyjamas. She was chatting outside for a while, as she walked around and gestured heavily, making them all intrigued. What was she talking about? And then she went into the lion to sit in the pilot's chair. The screen divided itself in two, to show the interior and exterior of the panther. More time passed by, and the faint purple dot almost went unnoticed, but Keith gasped and pointed at it, indicating Bagheera to freeze his thoughts for a second.

"What is that?" Lance asked, getting closer to the screen and squinting his eyes. Shiro's opened widely.

"That's Haxus, one of Sendak's soldiers," he said in a whisper and a little bit out of breath. Hunk put a hand on his shoulder.

"THAT BITCH KILLED _MY_ ROVER!" Pidge screamed, pushing her way to the front of the screen to stare at Haxus' image with anger. Nallely gasped.

"That bastard," she said, before looking at Pidge's nape. "Wait, what is a Rover?" she asked.

"I thought you had said he was dead, that he had fallen heavily!" Hunk exclaimed, and Pidge shook her head, trying to find a reasonable explanation. They all set her eyes on her, and the weight of the gazes made Pidge turn around.

"You said he was dead," Shiro repeated.

"Well, I'm sorry he isn't! I wasn't going to jump into the abyss to check!" she talked back, and then the big argument started.

No one was actually sure why they were arguing. In fact, it wasn't arguing, it was everyone screaming what they were thinking because they were panicking, while Nallely and Sugey tried to calm them down. The bomber on the loose was a Galra soldier they had thought long dead! Who wouldn't panic? Had he been able to contact the empire? If so, how much information had he managed to slip in?

They didn't notice Ariela had passed out until the panther roared loudly to call their attention, scaring them all and making them turn around. His pilot was unconscious on the floor, pale and her nose was bleeding.

"Oh, god," Shiro said, trotting towards her, but the panther roared again, stepping closer and putting one of his legs in front of Ariela's body, cutting the way. The man's eyes opened widely in surprise. Why didn't he let them help her?

_He doesn't like you, Shiro. He doesn't like your relationship with Ariela_ Black's voice sounded in his head, making him quirk an eyebrow, as he rose his hands and slowly drew back.

"Hunk, could you pick her up?" he asked, but the yellow paladin didn't move.

"What if it attacks me?" he asked in a whisper, without tearing his eyes from the growling panther as he fidgeted with his shirt.

"The problem is with me. He will let you get near," and once he heard those words, Hunk quickly walked towards the woman, passing right in front of the panthers sharp and bared teeth. Bagheera did not move and even stopped growling when Hunk got near, relaxing once he saw Ariela was in his arms and kind of safe.

"She needs to rest, but we can't leave her alone with Haxus hiding," Lance said, nearing Hunk and wiping the blood on her face away with his thumb. It had been a while since the last time her nose had bled because she had overworked herself or was too stressed. There was this one time that she started bleeding while taking a final and didn't notice. Her professor almost fainted.

"We can look for him with the security cameras on the control deck. Two or three of you should go looking for pillows and stuff so that she doesn't lay on the floor," Coran said. "Pidge and Sugey, you should come with me. We'll find him faster if there's three of us," he added.

"I'll go looking for the pillows and stuff," Shiro said, and before speaking Keith was already by his side. "Take care."

"You too," Lance said, without looking at him.

# \- - -

"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked when they were finally alone, the group that headed to the control deck turning right in a hallway. It took Keith a few seconds to respond the question, not knowing what Shiro was talking about at the beginning.

"I don't know. I mean, it's been... What? Two months since all of this," he started, signalling his body with his two hands. "And I still feel really weird. This..., pack thing is totally new. I mean, you know me, and you know that I am not one of the most sociable people you have met."

"God knows that's true," Shiro nodded with a small laugh.

"Yeah. And, suddenly, I'm constantly craving contact with everyone. If I'm alone for more than an hour I start to feel physical and emotional uneasiness. And... I crave for different people different times and is all of this whole new world I understand at the same time I don't," he finished. "And this craving to everyone is even worse with him. If you asked me if I would be okay with living my whole life locked up somewhere with Lance just cuddling I would say yes without hesitating." Shiro wanted to laugh at the way Keith sounded so fucking done with the situation, but he knew better than jumping into a suicide action.

"You need him," he added, once he knew his little brother wouldn't keep the rant going, and Kieth nodded, ears sticking to his skull in shame and a blush making the skin of his face go from pastel lilac to violet.

"I need him and I hate it. I can smell him before hi enters the room and it practically makes me weak on the knees, Shiro! If this keeps up I will end up flinging myself into the welcoming void of space and accept death with open arms," he said, voice reaching a high pitch and finally making Shiro laugh, but Keith turned to him, glaring daggers through his skull. "If you were me you would have already done it. I mean, if being completely human you went nuts over Ariela with the freaky heat imagine if you had this fucking nose," he said, and Shiro felt his cheeks redden. 

"I... Okay, you know what? Yeah, I like her a lot. I won't battle your teasing anymore," he shrugged, and Kieth quirked and eyebrow at him as they entered the common room and started picking up pillows and sheets.

"Really? Huh. I never imagined you would admit it so soon," he said, his voice muffled by the pillows covering his face. "When are you going to make a move, then?" Shiro snorted, as they walked out of the room.

"I'm not going to make a move. She is a friend and a teammate. I would be risking too much. Besides, she doesn't like me," he answered, and Keith made a doubtful noise.

"I mean, I don't know about emotions, but she would totally fuck you," he said, making Shiro roll his eyes.

"When you finally solve your McClain problem we'll talk about mine, okay?".

#  \- - -

All heads shot towards them when the door of the control room slid open. They were all gathered around a screen that showed multiple security camera views, except for Hunk, that was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall, Ariela sleeping on top of him. She was hugging his waist and had her face buried in his chest, while Hunk was hugging her loosely.

"We spotted him on the fuel storage room," Sugey announced proudly, pointing at a purple figure hunching in a corner, letting them know that she had been the one to spot him.

"He doesn't look that big. Keith and I could easily take him down," Nallely whispered, leaning in and resting a hand on her hip. Lance turned his face to her slowly, with a smile that sent chills running down Coran's spine.

"You two have been practising a lot lately, huh?" he started, before clamping Keith in the shoulder. "Look a Keith, a ladies man," he laughed, and Shiro wanted to slam his forehead against a wall.

"I don't know, Nallely. Galras are stronger than they seem. Besides, I want to be the one nailing his head with a hammer," Pidge said through gritted teeth. Hunk appeared beside them, already having left Ariela on the makeshift bed and rubbing his chin.

"I think that two of us should stay to keep an eye on Ariela and the rest of us should go and take him down," he said, closing his eyes and nodding. Coran nodded too, as he started walking towards a wall.

"Hunk and Sugey should stay, the rest of us will go looking for the Galra," the royal adviser said, and the paladins turned to eye him with incredulous looks.

"Umm, Coran? Don't you think it'd be better if you stayed with Sugey?" Keith asked, as Coran punched a few buttons on the wall and four panels slid back to reveal a secret compartment that worked as an armoury. He grabbed a white and blue two bladed spear and started spinning it around distractedly with one hand as if it was a stick, while he eyed the rest of the weapons.

"Nah. It's been a while since I last had the chance to beat a Galra," he answered, as he took out a belt of little knives and handed it to Sugey. "Go nuts, kiddo."

# \- - -

"How long do you think it will take them to reduce him?" Sugey asked as she continued to play with the little throwing knives that Coran had given her. She would throw them in the air and make them spin several times at an unbelievable speed to catch them by the blade or the handle. She was going to cut her fingers.

"I don't know," Hunk answered. He was sitting in front of the screens that showed the images of the security cameras. Coran had programmed them to show places where there was movement, so he could see them and Haxus at the same time.

"Do you think they will kill him?" she asked.

"It depends. The most probable thing is that they try to keep him alive to interrogate him, but if it gets too dangerous they will kill him," he replied again, and then the big screen was occupied by something else.

_Incoming call. Amiral Garrison_

"What? The fuck does this man want now?" the paladin muttered to himself. "Answer call." The image of the man appeared. He looked a mix of angry and sick, as he frowned.

"Cadet Garrett. Where is everybody else?" he asked. hunk rolled his eyes.

"They are dealing with a tiny problem," he answered, and Sugey looked at the screen with wide gleaming eyes.

"It's the scary man that Ariela hates!" she exclaimed, pointing at the admiral, and Hunk turned to her mouthing the word "Don't".

"Anyways. We are dealing with something ourselves," the man sighed, and Hunk turned to him with narrowed eyes. "The information was spilt. The technician that arranged this system told everything to someone in the press and now it is a worldwide news," he explained.

"Oh," was all Hunk said, before shrugging. "As long as it doesn't cause major panic and we are not blamed for it, I don't really care," he said. Garrison squinted his eyes at him.

"It didn't cause a major panic. On the contrary, everyone is in some kind of blissed state. It seems civilians don't understand there is an intergalactic war that could destroy us going on," he said, looking as if he had lost all faith in humanity. "But the institute is going to take advantage of this."

Hunk's eyebrows rose.

"Excuse me?"

"We are going to sell communication time with you to the press. The more money we can get the better," he said, and Hunk wanted to slap him. Where they really going to turn this whole thing into a money maker business? It was a _war_!

"I'm sorry, but what if we say no?" Hunk asked.

"The world already knows about your situation, Garrett. If you don't follow our rules we can easily make you look like villains and turn the whole world against you. The traitors of the human kind! We'll cut every last communication cable you have with your family and that will be it, good luck with coming back." Garrison said the whole thing without stuttering nor tearing his eyes away from Hunk's. He was not joking, and judging by what he had just heard, there was no way out of this.

"THAT MAN IS A JERK!" Sugey screamed, knife spinning even faster on her hands, and the Admiral laughed really hard.

"Anyway. That is your situation right now," he said, before reading something from a piece of paper. "I was hoping Captain Shirogane could give a press conference right now, but they will have to conform to you. You can't talk about what I just told you, and try avoiding near death experiences and anything that can make you look weak," he said, reading that from the paper sheet. "You ready?"

"You mean like... talking to the press right now? I can't do that, Admiral. I have to take care of something," Hunk said.

"Then make the rest of the cadets do it. You are going to talk right now. We had a conglomeration of journalists on the door and we couldn't even get our workers inside the establishment. They are sitting in the room next to us, waiting for you," he said. "Whatever you have to take care of will have to wait."

And then Garrison pressed a button and his image turned into the one of a big room filled with people with microphones, cameras and notebooks.

_Oh crap_ Hunk thought.

_Those are humans too? They look so different from you. So... banal and simple_ Gold thought, making him hold back a chuckle, as he tried to make out something from the multiple people shouting at him.

The guards managed to calm everyone down and establish some sort of order for questions. Which were all ridiculous. How do aliens look like? Do they know about Earth? What do you eat? Where do you sleep? There were no questions about how he had gotten there with the rest of his team, nor about the war, and Hunk answered to everything with monotone voice and little to nothing expression.

Ariela woke up, but the little shit didn't go to help him, she just sat back on the makeshift bed, stretching her muscles as Sugey told her what had happened in whispers. Luckily, the part where they were was one of the little fringes of space that didn't show on cameras.

"Where is the rest of your team?" a young journalist asked, looking at him with waiting eyes.

"Umm, they are taking care of a..., malfunction on one of the propellers of our ship," he said, which was partially true, as he started panicking because he realised that he should be paying attention to what was going on with his team. How long had it been since they had gone out? An hour? An hour and a half?

He was answering a question about if there was music in space when the door slid open, and Pidge appeared panting.

"HUNK YOU DORK, I HAVE BEEN TRYING TO CONTACT YOU FOR LIKE FIFTEEN MINUTES!" she screamed, angrily walking towards him and amazingly ignoring the press conference on the screen. All the people in the institute ha fallen into a dead quiet silence, watching with curious eyes.

"I was kind of busy. What happened? Did you catch him?" he asked her, but Pidge didn't need to answer. The look on her eyes told her the truth.

"He escaped and we lost them. We split up and went looking for him but we just can't find him," she answered. "He ran off in this direction, so I just came sure that he didn't get here," she finished.

"Who are you talking about? Who ran away?" a journalist asked, and Pidge turned towards the screen.

"Hunk, what the fuck is this?" she asked, and Garrison's face popped up in front of the camera.

"Cadet Gunderson, I'm afraid I will have to ask you to moderate your language," he said in a warning tone, and Pidge shrugged.

"Bite me," she added without flinching, and a chorus of giggles rose in between the journalists, but they stopped when a roar was heard from the hallway.

"HUNK!" Keith's voice screamed, and Haxus appeared on the control deck, armed with a sword and aiming straight for Ariela and Sugey, that were still sitting on the makeshift bed.

Sugey reacted by standing up and throwing a knife that nailed in the Galra's shoulder, and Ariela stood up and ran towards the armoury, still open, and took a pair of riddik knives. She put herself in between Haxus and Sugey and stabbed the blade of the Galra's sword with hers, pushing him behind before kicking him in the stomach. Keith appeared in the door and threw a gash with his sword, but Haxus evaded it.

"Where did all these people come from?" a journalist asked, and Hunk couldn't believe it. He grabbed his bayard from a table and turned it on, but Pidge stopped him.

"DON'T! You can damage something or someone by accident!" she told him, before running in the middle of the battle herself. She tried to cut Haxus on the side, but he round-house kicked her and sent her flying against a wall.

"Protect Sugey! Keith and I will take care of him!" Ariela said, and they all wanted to complain. She was still weak to fight properly, but it was what they had at the moment. She rose a leg and kicked Haxus in the chin, sending him stumbling backwards, and Keith made his sword go through the Galra's stomach. Ariela and Keith quickly put as much distance as they could between them and the Galra.

He fell to his knees, blood already starting to come out of his mouth, and the woman relaxed, turning around to eye Sugey and Pidge. The youngest was looking at Haxus with eyes wide open and a knife on her hand, while the oldest was waiting in fighting stance, seeming calm. Keith gasped.

"He's got a bomb remote," he said in a whisper, but they all heard him and turned towards him, watching in terror as his thumb was already about to press the button on his hand.

And then a knife nailed his head and he dropped dead on the ground, Keith running to take the button away from there. Sugey was panting in shock at what she had just done, not registration Pidge talking to her, trying to get her to react. Hunk was frozen at the spot, but when he noticed Ariela signalling him to go to them he practically ran, as she neared the screen that showed really confused journalists.

"Who are you?" one of them immediately screamed when she saw Ariela. "You weren't on the missing people report from the Garrison!". Ariela sighed.

"No, I wasn't. My name is Ariela Torres and I'm not a student from the Garrison," she answered tiredly.

"If you are not a pilot then why are you there?" another one asked. She rolled her eyes.

"I am a pilot, although I didn't study..., piloting or whatever. Listen, we are experiencing some difficulties. I promise you that once we have dealt with them we will call you back," she said, smiling warmly and fakely, but Garrison's face popped up again.

"Don't you dare to turn off the communication, Mrs Torres," he said using his Admiral voice, and Ariela rose an eyebrow.

"You are no boss of mine, mister," she said. "End call." The screen turned black just when all the journalists stood up and started screaming questions desperately. She turned to eye her team. "Is everyone okay?"

"Besides from some nasty bruises we are alright, but your nose is bleeding again," Keith said, panting and pointing at her. Ariela brought a hand to her face and when she looked at her fingers they were read.

"Ugh," was all she said, as she wiped the blood on her uniform.  
"You should go to rest, Ariela. We'll handle everything from now on," Pidge said with a comforting smile.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, I'm sorry it took so long to update, but I just finished my last semester in school and you know what it's like. Besides, the chapter would delete itself from time to time (I don't know why) and I would have to rewrite it all over again.  
> Anyway, I've updated my blog with everyone's aesthetics (only Sugey's is missing) and Hunk's headcanons. If you'd like to check them out I leave you my blog's url ([http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/](url)). Also, I recently had the idea of posting little bonus conversations between the characters that wouldn't be worth putting on an actual chapter, just for shits and giggles. Tell me what you think in the comments.  
> Anyway, I hope you like it! If you can and want, please leave you review of everything in the comments and if you are liking it please don't forget to leave Kudos!
> 
> Love ya!


	28. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm a sucker for cuddling, in case you hadn't noticed before. Heh.  
> Also ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Once it was over almost all of the crew went to sleep. But Lance had enough energy to stay awake for hours, and he had some new and interesting information at hand that he wanted to corroborate. He hadn't lied when he said he had been at the library, after all. It turned out that there was this huge pack of books with different volumes about the lions and the panther and their respective paladins. They were six big-ass books that deeply explained the building of each robot, the ritual to provide them with quintessence, their behaviour and how they bonded. There was this _loooooong_ explanation about their arimas too, but Lance hadn't finished that part.

"Hi there, Blue," Lance greeted when he walked into the hangar, lips pursing when he saw how Blue faked activating herself when he stepped into the place.

_Hello, Lance. Lovely afternoon, isn't it? _she said, changing her stiff sitting posture with a more relaxed one, lying down and resting her head between her legs.__

__"Indeed. Listen, Blue," he started, as he sat in front of the lion and she cocked her head curiously. "I was doing some research on the library and I found this book, that explains how you guys work and stuff like that," he said._ _

___And what did you find?_ She was trying to hide the slight anxiousness from him, totally eliminating it from her soft voice, but Lance was still bound to her and he could feel it picking in her mind._ _

__"I read this thing that said that you guys actually can move without us." Silence. "Why do you act like you are useless without your paladins?" he asked, and blue stared at him with surprised yellow eyes._ _

___You are not angry? You are not going to punish me?_ she asked, a tremor in her voice making his heart skip a beat in the bad way, as he frowned and pressed one of his hands lightly against her left paw. If she was human, or even if she just breathed, she would have been hyperventilating, looking at him with fear-filled eyes._ _

__"Why would I..., _punish_ you?" he asked, spitting out that foreign word with disgust. And that startled Blue. It didn't calm her down, it just surprised her, while she looked at him as if trying to find a clue that he was acting the confusion and innocence. He waited for her to answer, and once Blue decided that he wasn't acting everything up, she started explaining._ _

___We are wild animals, Lance. Or at least we used to be. At the beginning, if we started acting up or even if we tried to have some kind of free will they would do this..._ thing _to us. We couldn't move nor talk..., not even think! It was horrible_ she explained, and Lance didn't doubt of her words for a second, images and feelings of her panic flooding his mind as she spoke._ _

__"How...? Who did that?" he asked._ _

___The same people that put us in this metal bodies, but the paladins would sometimes ask them to do it. My paladin was the one that asked for it the least, but he would sometimes do it_ she explained. Lowering her head, and Lance started rubbing at the metal._ _

__"I don't understand. Shouldn't the paladins be this loving group of people filled with sunlight and flowers that love their lions as if they were their siblings just like the rest of the universe?" he asked, and Blue laughed so loudly it made him dizzy. She stood up, before starting to pace around._ _

___Oh, Lance, you make me laugh. No, the paladins are... The paladins are the last hope, therefore they will need to be as ruthless and perfect as the last hope can be. They must be loving people, of course, but towards the people they need to save. I and my pack are nothing but mere tools for them, tools that need to be adapted, pets that have to be trained. And, believe me darling, there is not much love in a paladin when he is right in front of the enemy and there's something to protect_ she explained, and Lance's ribcage suddenly felt hollow, as if his heartbeat was missing. How could the previous paladins treat the lions so poorly? They were amazing!_ _

__"I do love you if that makes you feel better. And I'm pretty sure the rest also loves their lions," he told her, and this time Blue chuckled, the soft sound sounding like water slowly flowing in a fountain and making him warm and fuzzy on the inside. Blue's voice always had that effect on him; it calmed him, relaxed him and made him feel as at home as he could feel, as if he was diving in the calm sea of Boca Ciega, a beach in Havana, the soft rumble of the water deafening him to his family's joyful screams and yelps._ _

___I know you love me, and they know they love them. Why do you think it practically took us no time to bond with you, when it usually takes years to make a paladin be able to fly his lion properly?_ she asked him, as he laid on the floor and started swishing his right leg from side to side, concentrating half of his brain in that motion._ _

__"I'm glad you told me. I had been wondering how we were not dead the first day we arrived at this Castle," he said, laughing softly. Blue echoed him, as she laid down next to him again, and there was this comfortable silence between them for a while before she spoke again._ _

___Are you feeling better? From all of this Sean business?_ she asked him with a soft and mother like voice. He hummed, the sound not working neither as a negative or an affirmation._ _

__"Someone killing themselves because of you never actually fades away. It's like living with an illness, this rotten thing climbing up your veins every second passing. Sometimes you just forget about it, but it always comes back," he answered, and Blue actually growled at him, mad._ _

___It was not your fault, Lance. You did everything you could to help. It was those...,_ monsters _that pushed him to do what he did. I think that the feelings he had for you were the only bright feelings in him at that time_ she told him, but being able to rummage through Lance's mind also made her able to know that he didn't accept that. He didn't believe her words, so Blue just let the subject go and waited a few minutes to bring another one up, breaking the comfortable silence again._ _

___How's stuff with Keith going?_ she asked, and Lance groaned._ _

__"You know perfectly how it's going. You live in my brain even more than I live in yours!" he exclaimed, but he quickly calmed down and started talking. "He has been really affectionate and handsy lately, but there's this thing deep inside me that tells me it's just his Galra instincts. Well, the thing deep inside me and all the Galra biology books I could find in the library," he answered, pouting, and Blue softly bopped her snout against his stomach._ _

___If someone knows about pack instincts that's me. And you are right; Galras do have very strong pack instincts, and Keith's are even stronger because of the bond between the paladins that forms itself through the Voltron connection. The more time you spend flying and training together, the more the others sink into your skin and become part of your life. That's why paladins tend to die all together, they can't survive without the others_ was her answer, and Lance's eyes lost light. _But, I also know Red like the palm of my hand, and there are things she is not telling me. Ever since the Sendak incident she doesn't even pronounce your name nor glances at you, it's like you didn't even exist for her. And that is weird because she used to brag about how Keith was better than you all the time_ she added._ _

__"She really did that?" Lance asked. Blue nodded._ _

___Yeah. And then it all stopped suddenly. So I think that Keith feels something for you too! _____

____"Maybe Red just started hating me. The panther hates Shiro," he proposed, but Blue shook her head, letting herself drop to the floor comically._ _ _ _

_____The panther is really protective of your sister, Lance. You know that panthers are not pack animals, and he didn't have a good relationship with his last paladin, but Ariela is a sweetheart that actually worries about him and likes his company, so he is crazy for her. She idolises her almost as much as you idolise her. Black and he crash a lot because Black wants Shiro to be okay, and for that he needs Ariela. The panther doesn't like Shiro being so close to Ariela because he thinks he's not worthy of his paladin and blah, blah, blah. But Red never said something like that about you. Besides, her silence is more like the "I'm blushing because you just mentioned the person my paladin and other half fantasises about and it's really awkward because if I say something he'll hate me" kind of silence_ she finished, snickering and Lance laughed loudly._ _ _ _

____"So you think that I should go after him, huh?" he asked, and Blue purred._ _ _ _

_____I want you to be happy. And I have this feeling that you'd be really happy with Keith_._ _ _ _

# \- - -

____By the time Allura came back it had already gotten dark outside and her face was a little bit paler. A week! If they had arrived a week sooner they would have had to participate of the Flower Festivity, that was spending the whole day collecting flowers and knitting them into a long-ass rope to decorate the Castle to welcome Spring._ _ _ _

____She had arrived at the Castle and found almost everyone in a cuddle pile at the common area, Coran sitting calmly in one of the sofas while reading a book. The paladins, except Lance that wasn't there, looked all extremely peaceful and it broke Allura's heart having to wake them up to tell them the kind of bad or at least nasty news, but she did it anyways. Pidge was sleeping, half sitting on the floor and half leaning into Hunk's back, with Sugey's head on her lap. Nallely was next to her sister, made a burrito of blankets. Ariela was sandwiched between Shiro and Keith, which was kind of weird. Not because of the sight of Ariela's face buried in Shiro's chest, but because of Keith hugging her waist tightly and having his cold nose against her nape._ _ _ _

____In fact, Keith had started off sleeping alone in a side, but when he was half asleep the alluring smell of ocean storm had called to him, the scent being similar to the one of ocean breeze mixed with Lance's scent to his sleep-fogged mind._ _ _ _

____It took almost twenty minutes, but Allura managed to wake everyone up and take them to the dining room, and Lance just appeared out of nowhere, saying that Blue had let him know she had arrived._ _ _ _

____"What we would have to do kind of involves virgins," was the first thing she said to the groggy crew. They had just woken up, so most of them weren't functioning properly yet, and Ariela was actually clinging to Keith like a sleepy child clings to their mother, letting them know that she was more asleep than awake. Surprisingly, Keith didn't seem to mind it. In fact, it looked like the contact was quite pleasing for him, as he smiled softly when Ariela buried her face in the crook of his neck and hugged him like she would hug a teddy bear._ _ _ _

____"Do we have to sacrifice a virgin?" Shiro asked with panicked look, actually not being so chill about pushing someone into a volcano, but Allura shook her head._ _ _ _

____"We arrived for the Fertility Festival. Two unmated Keuskerians mate the second week of Spring and the child they conceive is the offering to the goddess of many things I won't repeat right now," she answered, and everyone squinted at her._ _ _ _

____"What do we have to do then? Encourage the two dudes as they fuck?" Lance asked, and Keith rolled his eyes at the lack of sensitivity from his teammate, making him slightly drop his head._ _ _ _

____"Nope," Allura answered, mouthing the word exaggeratedly, and they all frowned._ _ _ _

____"I don't like where this is going," Pidge announced. "Carry on."_ _ _ _

____"As Lance guessed, mating for Keuskerians is having sex. They are an incredibly fertile race, so the females get pregnant every time they do it. The Festival unites a couple per year, probably against their will," she started, before noticing she was biting around the bushes. She nailed her eyes on the table before dropping the bomb. "We would have to replace the two Keuskerians with two of our crew," she said quickly and clearly, the words being easily caught by everyone's ears, but it still took the team a few moments to react._ _ _ _

____"These people need to chill," was the first thing anyone said, words coming from Hunk and making Sugey laugh. She looked at him with little sparks in her eyes, just like she looked at Nallely. Ariela shot her head up, eyes shining with hope._ _ _ _

____" _¡Lance!¡Es tu chance de ponerla con el Nico Di Angelo espacial!_ she shouted at her brother, startling them all. Shiro caught all of the words but didn't understand any of them. The rest just wanted to strangle her (Why couldn't she just tease Lance in English?) when they saw how the blue paladin's face started to turn bright red._ _ _ _

____" _¡'tás ambientosa hoy, eh!_ " he snapped back, and she laughed a soft chuckle before burying her face in Keith's neck again. It was warm and it smelt really good._ _ _ _

____"Leaving whatever just happened aside..." Shiro started, eyes going from one sibling to the other, before finally setting themselves over Allura. "It's our only option?" he asked a little knot in his throat. She nodded._ _ _ _

____"I tried to negotiate participating from the next one, but the king didn't give in," she answered with a small sigh. There was a long pause._ _ _ _

____"Then we need to establish who will..., you know," Keith mumbled, before clearing his throat awkwardly. Nallely was the first one to speak._ _ _ _

____"I won't get near any of you guys, no matter how at risk our lives are!" she exclaimed backing away and pulling Sugey with her. "And she is too little," she added._ _ _ _

____"Don't worry, Nalle. We never thought of you two," Hunk said with a soft smile._ _ _ _

____"Allura is off the table too," Coran said, and the princess quirked an eyebrow. "You are still a minor and unmated. No, no. Not happening," the royal adviser said when he noticed Allura's expression._ _ _ _

____"Oh, I see where this is going," Ariela muttered, before lifting her head. "Fuck it, I'll do it."_ _ _ _

____"Ariela, are you sure?" Allura asked with concern. The woman laughed._ _ _ _

____"Unless Pidge, a fourteen-year-old, wants to take my place," she said, finally parting from Keith. "So, who's going to be the lucky one?" she asked, before winking at Keith. Lance groaned and covered his eyes as he squatted._ _ _ _

____"Ugh. The mental images. They are strong. I can not..., beat them!" he exclaimed and Hunk pushed him into the floor with the tip of his foot softly, and Lance went down with a yelp._ _ _ _

____"How do we decide? Draw the straws or something?" he asked at the same time, blushing madly._ _ _ _

_____Are you sure you don't want to volunteer, Shiro?_ Black asked, and that was when he could hear the realisation fall into his brain with a harsh _clank_ : the one that was chosen would have sex with Ariela. _ _ _ _

____As if he had felt his queue, Keith tapped him softly on the shoulder and looked at him with eyes charged with "JUST FUCKING DO IT" when he turned to look at him._ _ _ _

____"Why don't we rock-paper-and-scissors-it out?" he asked instead, and Keith's eyes were suddenly on fire, murdering instinct working as fuel, as he mouthed some curse in Korean that Shiro's ear recognised from some time when he was still a cadet at the Garrison and Keith was too young to curse in English and not getting scolded if the parents of the house noticed._ _ _ _

____There was a long pause._ _ _ _

____"I can't believe this," Hunk muttered as he put his right fist on his left palm and the other three paladins mirrored him. Everyone looked at Lance strangely, but he shrugged._ _ _ _

____"She's not my real sister and yes, it would be awkward, but..." he looked at Ariela, and she shrugged back. "Whatever," he concluded, preparing himself. "The one that loses goes out? And the one that wins everything does it?" they all hummed an agreement._ _ _ _

____"Rock, paper, scissors." Keith was out, sighing. It would have been really awkward to have sex with a girl, especially if the girl was your crush's sister._ _ _ _

____"Rock, paper, scissors." Lance was out, begging that Shiro won._ _ _ _

____"Rock, paper, scissors."_ _ _ _

____Silence._ _ _ _

____"Well," he started. "I guess it's me then," Hunk finished, looking at his fist. Rock beats scissors. He bit his lip and sniffed, suddenly feeling a wave of panic._ _ _ _

____"Hey. What is is, darling?" Ariela asked, walking towards Hunk and cupping his face in her hands. He looked at her, pouting. "Is it Haunani?" she asked, and he nodded slowly, before sniffing again._ _ _ _

____"I'm scared she'll get mad at me," he answered, and she awwed, before hugging him._ _ _ _

____"She sounds like a really cool girl, Hunk. I bet she'll understand this..., bizarre situation," she said, frowning and then smiling again. Hunk hugged her back. Everyone was watching the scene in silence, and Kieth strongly smacked Shiro in the stomach, making him suck his breath, before pointing at Ariela._ _ _ _

____"Dude!" he whispered in anger, opening his eyes a lot as if that replaced the words he wanted to say. Which kind of did. Shiro clicked his tongue and got near to whisper in Keith's ears._ _ _ _

____"I don't want to! I already told you, Keith!" he whispered, and Keith smacked him again, pointing at Hunk this time._ _ _ _

____"You are making Hunk cry! You don't want to make Hunk cry, do you?" he asked, again in a whisper, and Shiro sighed. He really did not want to make Hunk cry._ _ _ _

_____Yeah, keep telling yourself that, honey_ Black chuckled in his mind, and his eye twitched before he separated from Keith and cleared his throat._ _ _ _

____"I..." he started, and everyone turned to him. "I can do it if you don't want to, Hunk," he said, voice low and scar camouflaging itself perfectly in his blush, as he scrapped his nape and looked at the floor. Everyone rose their eyebrows in mild surprise, and Pidge was regretting not having started a betting pool in her limited time._ _ _ _

____"Are you sure, man? Because if you're doing this just for me..." Hunk started, but Shiro shook his head, cutting him short._ _ _ _

____"I really don't mind volunteering," he said, before looking at Ariela and catching her grin. "But just as friends," he added, and Keith found it physically painful to hold himself back from facepalming himself._ _ _ _

____"Just as friends," Ariela giggled back, and he blushed harder, but then her face changed from relaxed to alert. "Wait a minute!" she exclaimed. "There are a few problems here," she muttered. Shiro's stomach shrank._ _ _ _

____"What is it?" Allura asked._ _ _ _

____"If unmated is their word for virgin then I don't count. I don't know Shiro but..." she started._ _ _ _

____"Yeah, I-I don't count either," he stuttered out, and there was the pain of holding the facepalm again._ _ _ _

____"Oh. Well, I don't think they actually have a way of knowing who's a virgin or not. It's just that when they mate they get married. It's a must do because they are surely having a child together. If you don't have kids then there's nothing to indicate that you are mated," Allura explained._ _ _ _

____"Oh, good," Ariela said, but then the alert was back. "Second thing. I'm kind of in the middle of a war, and I'm only twenty-two-years-old. The idea of getting pregnant doesn't really call to me like that. Does someone have condoms or...?" she asked, and Allura shook her head._ _ _ _

____"Contraception goes against the Festivity, so they won't allow any form of it," the princess answered, looking as if she had just broken something._ _ _ _

____"Then I back away," Ariela said._ _ _ _

____"Ariela, either you do this or we all die!" Nallely said._ _ _ _

____"It's easy for you to say! You won't be the one who has to have his baby parasiting your stomach if you are not lucky!" she exclaimed, pointing at Shiro._ _ _ _

____"Would it really be that bad?" he asked with a smile, and she rolled his eyes._ _ _ _

____"Don't take it personally, babe," she replied._ _ _ _

____"Hey, hey. Calm down. I'm sure we can synthesise some kind of "the day after" pill," Hunk said, smiling at his proposal._ _ _ _

____"What is that?" Coran said._ _ _ _

____"When you don't want to get pregnant but you didn't use protection while having sex you can take a pill that kills everything that moves, basically," Lance answered. And Allura's eyes opened suddenly._ _ _ _

____"We have a thing like that!" she exclaimed. Coran turned to her._ _ _ _

____"And how do you know about that?" he asked, and she blushed._ _ _ _

____"Oh, you know... That thing..." she muttered, and Coran looked ready to kill someone. "Anyway, if it is already settled then we should go to the castle and tell them that it's not necessary to kill us anymore. Shall we?" she asked, as she marched out of the common room._ _ _ _

# \- - -

____Keuskerians were nasty, just like their rituals. If you asked Keith to describe them in a few words it was pig-people. They weren't actually hybrids of humans a people, but their features and the shape of their bodies resembled a pig's, and we better not talked about their high pitched and broken voice. Hearing the king speak had given him a major headache. And the smell; it was a really hot day, so they were all sweating, but Keuskerians had an awful smell._ _ _ _

____Their relationship with the king started with the left foot. When the man saw that not only the princess (a female) was the one on charge of diplomatic business but that half of the crew was female, including two of them as the paladins that had saved their lives, and that they had a Galra paladin he got a little bit fuzzy, like a baby that had skipped his naptime._ _ _ _

____Guards had actually attacked Keith when they saw him. Everyone had jumped in his defence in less than a second, but Lance and Shiro turned plain scary, the blue paladin holding one of the guards at gunpoint and muttering through gritted teeth what would happen if they touched the red paladin. It wasn't like Keith wouldn't have been able to defend himself, but something had pushed the team to jump in front of him and look at the Keuskerians guards with eyes clouded with bad intentions._ _ _ _

____"Whatever. If you are so interested in participating in our ritual and won't back down, I guess the best thing we can do is get started on the preparations," he had murmured, dropping his face in his closed fist, as he sprawled himself on his big throne. "We will have to measure the offerings. Who will they be?" he asked, and Ariela and Shiro raised a hand._ _ _ _

____The guards started murmuring and the king frowned at Ariela, as he stood up and started walking around her with squinted eyes and disgust twisting his face. She was wearing a white crop top and shorts._ _ _ _

____"Are you sure about your decision, paladin? She is too ugly, even for a human. Look at those muscles and..., what are those purple lines?" he asked, pointing at Ariela's stretch marks over her thighs. The woman looked ready to kill him._ _ _ _

____"I am sure, king," was the only thing Shiro said._ _ _ _

____"We could make an exception. You and one of our women," the Keuskerian kept insisting, but Shiro covered his face with his hands, completely red (in part from anger and in part from the embarrassment) and actually gently pushed the king away from Ariela._ _ _ _

____"That won't be necessary," he said with a soft fake smile and gentle voice, but the king didn't take his eyes off of his hand, looking like he wanted to see Shiro's head rolling on the floor._ _ _ _

____"Whatever. My servants will take you to a measuring room. The rest can go and use our pool, today is a really hot day," the king said, flopping down in his throne and dismissing them with a lazy gesture of his hand._ _ _ _

____Two Keuskerians dressed in black and white appeared from nowhere, each of them grabbing Ariela and Shiro by one arm ad dragging them to a room, where other servants were waiting for them with measuring tapes in their hands. They made the paladins step up in two little podiums and started measuring, silently. And then it hit Shiro completely._ _ _ _

____"Shiro, you are looking at me as if I was Zarkon, are you okay?" Ariela asked, looking at his pale face. Shiro had actually been gaping at her. He shook his head, still in some kind of shock._ _ _ _

____"I'm going to have sex with you," was what came out of his mouth, making Ariela giggle and the servants blush._ _ _ _

____"It will be okay, Shiro," she told him, but when she noticed the man wasn't calming down she spoke again. "If you are so against the idea then you can switch with one of the guys," she said, and Shiro felt a pang of regret in his chest when he noticed the hurt in her eyes._ _ _ _

____"Who can I switch with? Lance is your brother, and I know you would rather not do it. Hunk has that girl you mentioned. Coran is definitely out of the table and Keith doesn't like...!" he started off, before noticing that he had been about to spill it. Ariela's head shot up at that phrase._ _ _ _

____"What doesn't he like?" she asked in a whisper, and Shiro blushed._ _ _ _

____"He doesn't like you," Shiro lied, lowering his head, so he completely missed Ariela frowning in disbelief at him, but then the hurt returned to her eyes._ _ _ _

____"I guess no one does," she whispered then, and the bang in Shiro's chest was strong enough to make him react this time, realising that he was acting like a baby._ _ _ _

____"No, don't get me wrong, Ari. I do, you are... Wow, you are stunning. The king didn't know what he was talking about," he said, and a knot surged in his heart when he noticed Ariela _blushing_. A few of the servants sighed happily at hearing him say that. "It's just that... You are the one thig keeping me from falling apart. I can't lose my only pillar," he said, and his voice partially cracked at the end._ _ _ _

____Shiro's scent was mixed with so many things that Ariela felt dizzy. She could recognise fear, happiness, and a sweet yet spicy thing she couldn't quite place. There also was the pulling of the bond. Bagheera had explained it to her: the Voltron bond, pulling paladins and their robots together. It was weird for the black panther paladin to be so connected to the team, but she was closer to the team than the previous paladin seemed to be. Apparently, they didn't even talk._ _ _ _

____She could feel Shiro's insecurity and fear pulling her in, making her want to comfort him. Pat his back, tell him that everything would be alright. So she did._ _ _ _

____Ariela looked at the servant measuring her with questioning eyes, and the woman nodded, so she got down on her little podium and walked towards Shiro. He seemed surprised when she got up and hugged him tightly, but the surprise didn't stop him from wrapping his arms around her and burying his nose in her hair._ _ _ _

____"It is going to be okay, Shiro. I won't leave you alone, no matter how _the night_ goes," she told him with a smile. "After all, I've taken it as a job to make you feel better," she added, finally parting from him and looking at his eyes with gold irises filled with warm feelings that made Shiro's stomach do a flip._ _ _ _

_____I think that you might be attracted to her in more than one way_ Black sing-sang in his mind, but he slapped the voice out of his head immediately, hearing a chuckle after, as he finally focused on the feeling of Ariela against him and how she looked in that moment._ _ _ _

____It was not like that time they had kissed in her bedroom. They were calm now, and the moment felt so much more intimate now despite being watched by six pig-aliens that were enjoying this as someone would enjoy a Mexican soap-opera. He could feel her breathing crashing warm against his skin and could see her chest filling and then letting the air go. She was a little bit paler than that time, and there were a really light dark circles under her eyes, but she still looked great._ _ _ _

____Now that he had her tight there, pressed against her body and being able to see her in a different way he had never seen anyone but Lila before, it wasn't so hard to imagine how _the night_ would go. Well, at least he didn't fear it anymore._ _ _ _

____It was the servant's chuckle that made them break away, Shiro blushing madly and Ariela with rosy cheeks._ _ _ _

# \- - -

____The swimming pool was huge, made out of tiles of different shades of blue, and it was located in a gallery with sight to the sea. They had been given some black cloth that looked like a swimsuit, and the women had white tunics too. The water was really cool and transparent. Lance was in heaven._ _ _ _

____Because of that and because of the sight of Keith, shirtless and wet._ _ _ _

____He had gotten taller, he noticed, maybe three inches. His chest and back had gotten a little bit broader and his abs... Jesus. His abs and that ass may be the reason Lance had been programmed to like dudes. His skin was particularly pale that day, looking almost white._ _ _ _

____And Keith wasn't doing much better. He had never really seen Lance without clothes on (that time in Ariela's bedroom didn't count, it was too dark to appreciate the view), so the second he saw the supposedly skinny and tall guy shirtless he almost fainted. his legs were long and lean, thighs made to bite, but he already knew that. No, the surprising part was upstairs. He had a shoulder waist ratio of a Dorito, chest and back so broad Keith was starting to believe Lance was a professional swimmer instead of a pilot student before becoming a paladin. And the worst things were the freckles. His shoulders and back were showered with ginger freckles that Keith could spend his life counting and _hold on, hold on_... No, there was a new worst thing. The worst thing was his back dimples or Venus dimples. Not even the tattoo they had all just discovered ( a sequence of runes which had been explained, but Keith was too busy dying to pay attention) had been as bad as the dimples._ _ _ _

____"Hey, Keith!" Shiro called as he appeared from the door in his own black..., something similar to a swimsuit (it was longer than their pants, reaching the ankles, and it also had a long-sleeved shirt on the outfit), with Ariela following suit behind him in one of the white tunics. The moment she saw the swimming pool her face lit up and she started running, diving into the water flawlessly and swimming to the other end of the pool before getting out to take a breath. Lance made a sound similar to a howl and dived in from the stairs he had been sitting at, chest stroking his way to his sister at an amazing speed. Shiro just chose to calmly walk down the stairs._ _ _ _

____"I have never been so gay in my whole life," was what Keith said, in a whisper, once his brother was next to him._ _ _ _

____"I can't believe I'm getting laid before you do," Shiro laughed, clamping him in the shoulder._ _ _ _

____Meanwhile, in the other end of the pool, the siblings were having a breakdown._ _ _ _

____"I tell you I'm a hundred percent sure that he is indeed gay," Ariela assured, and Lance looked at her with narrowed eyes._ _ _ _

____"What did Shiro say that makes you think that?" he asked, and Ariela rolled her eyes, before submerging for a fraction of second and coming back up again._ _ _ _

____"He was panicking about the whole us having sex thing and I told him that, if he felt so bad because of it, he should just switch with one of you," she started, but Lance cut her._ _ _ _

____"I can't believe you took that risk!" he muttered, angry, before splashing her in the face with the cool water. She splashed him back._ _ _ _

____"He was about to break down, Lance! It doesn't matter how fine he is if he doesn't want it! Anyway, he started saying reasons for the rest not being valid and he said that Keith didn't like and he made a pause," she said._ _ _ _

____"You think he was going to say that Keith didn't like gals," Lance supposed._ _ _ _

____"Yes. He said that Keith didn't like me, but c'mon... You can't be into women and not be into me," she joked, and Lance snorted before his eyes opened wide in panic and realisation._ _ _ _

____"What if he is asexual?" he asked her, and Ariela groaned._ _ _ _

____"Do we know someone that is asexual, Lance? Why would he be the first?" she asked._ _ _ _

____"We know Pidge."_ _ _ _

____"Oh, she told you?" Lance, nodded, but she brushed it off. "The study says that one in five people are gay, not asexual," was her comeback._ _ _ _

____"We are ten people. We have room for two gay people. Nallely is one, and you and I together make a whole gay, so there's no room for Keith to be gay," he said, and Ariela looked so done it was unbelievable._ _ _ _

____"Are you even listening to yourself, Lance?" Her brother groaned and buried his face in his hands. "What are you going to do?" she asked and he looked at her from between his fingers._ _ _ _

____"I think I'll prepare the ground, instead of just jumping onto him," he said, nodding o himself, looking to the stairs of the pool and catching Keith's eyes on him._ _ _ _

# \- - -

____They had a week of rest, well, at least Ariela and Shiro, that weren't allowed to leave Keskeuro's palace. Shiro had had to leave someone prepared to take his place in the interviews Admiral Garrison had threatened to do, and that person turned out to be Pidge. Lance told Ariela to expect many memes when she was allowed to get into the computer again, as Pidge does not have patience with stupid people, such as reporters. A major lie had been invented to excuse both of the black paladin's absence and, despite the sassy comebacks and slight rudeness, the interviews seemed to go greatly with Pidge in charge. That week was also used to repair the Castle. Thousands of Keuskerians had their hands woking on the metal and by the fourth day, it was almost done. And all those who weren't working at the Castle were preparing everything for the festivity, even the offerings. Ariela couldn't believe that they just had to break down and have to be used as sex offers in a planet where waxing was an essential thing._ _ _ _

____Apparently, hair was not well seen in Keuskero's culture, because the more hair you had the closer you were to an animal, so Keuskerians waxed their whole body and put their skin through a procedure that avoided any hair from growing back. A procedure that hurt like hell, but Ariela did it anyways because, hey! She wouldn't have to wax anymore! Although she had been kind of forced to do it, and she had had to fight with claws and teeth for the servants to not shave her head and wax all of her eyebrows off._ _ _ _

____She would laugh so hard when she knew that Shiro had to go through the same thing._ _ _ _

____Because that was another thing. They couldn't see each other until the night of the Festival. No one knew why, but they just couldn't, which made Shiro feel like crap because he couldn't sleep._ _ _ _

____It was the third night without sleep when his door was opened suddenly, and Lance and Keith appeared with grumpy faces. Ariela had gone banging to Lance's bedroom to tell him that he had to go and cuddle Shiro to sleep or she would personally make sure their death was painfully slow. So, although it took him a while, Shiro ended up falling asleep sandwiched between Lance and Keith. There was something weird and out of place: Lance was warmer than Ariela, and although they smelt similar, it wasn't the same, but he didn't complain because he was able to sleep three hours in a row._ _ _ _

____And then the big night arrived._ _ _ _

____"I'm not going out like this," he said firmly. Keith wanted to roll his eyes, but before doing so Shiro added. "There's no shirt in this outfit?" And the red paladin noticed why his brother was so bothered by the lack of shirt._ _ _ _

____Everyone would be able to see his scars, his plenty deal of ugly scars in the back and chest, there were also small and deep cuts in his arm. hand and neck. There was not a single patch of skin that wasn't crossed by at least a faint white line. The bagged blue pants made out of silk hid the ones in his legs, but that wasn't enough. Even the one's at his hips were visible._ _ _ _

____Keith cringed when he managed to distinguish claw marks._ _ _ _

____"I'm sorry, paladin, but this is it," the servant that was dressing him said, as he slipped a necklace made out of rubies in his neck._ _ _ _

____"I can't come out like this," he said, looking at the servant with fear, but when he said nothing he turned to Keith. "She's going to hate them, Keith."_ _ _ _

____"You never showed her?" he asked, and Shiro lowered his head and shook it._ _ _ _

____"Why would I? It's gross," he answered, pointing at his reflection in the mirror._ _ _ _

____Keith only tried to lift his brother's spirit for five minutes, then he ran towards the room on the other side of the floor. When he knocked on the door, Lance was the one to open._ _ _ _

____"Is Ariela here?" he asked, panting, and Lance nodded, stepping aside to let him in. Keith gasped._ _ _ _

____Ariela was standing in front of a mirror, as a servant standing on a stool fixed her hair. She was wearing a chiffon red skirt, so long it dragged across the floor, with sapphires decorating the hipline and cuts that showed her legs. Then a red top, with crossed straps, made out of silk. She had ankle bracelets and bracelets made out of gold and sapphires, that tinkled with every slight move of hers. Her eyes were painted with a deep blue and her lips with a bright red, and the servant was tangling little blue flowers on her hair._ _ _ _

____"Oh, god. Ariela, you look great," he breathed out with a sincere smile, and the woman turned to him with a soft one._ _ _ _

____"Really?" she asked, and just in time the servant finished her work._ _ _ _

____"Yeah." Keith shook his head. "But that's not why I'm here. I need you to talk to Shiro. He is having a little crisis," Keith said, not wanting to explain the whole thing with Lance there, listening._ _ _ _

____"But I can't see him," Ariela said, walking towards him barefoot._ _ _ _

____"You can speak to him through the door," Keith proposed, but she was already getting out of the bedroom._ _ _ _

____"I'll be right back," she screamed to both Lance and the servant who started to power walk after them, as Ariela trotted next to Keith, the sound of bracelets tinkling filling the air._ _ _ _

____Soon they were in front of Shiro's bedroom door, and Keith asked her to stay there as he went inside. Shiro was sitting at the edge of the large bed, fidgeting with his own hands and head hanging low. Keith cleared his throat and he rose his._ _ _ _

____"Come'ere," Keith told him, signalling him to get near the open door, and stopping him once he was just next to the door panel._ _ _ _

____"Why did you...?" Shiro started, but Ariela's voice sounded to his ears clear and worried._ _ _ _

____"Shiro? Are you okay there?" she asked, and Shiro's face seemed to light up._ _ _ _

_____Oh, no. He's just as in deep as me_ Keith thought, as he watched how Shiro gave a hesitant step closer to the door._ _ _ _

____"I-I'm kind of fine," he answered, and they could hear a sigh from the other side._ _ _ _

____"Keith told me that you didn't want to come out of your room." Shiro lowered his head in shame again._ _ _ _

____"I don't feel comfortable in this clothes. They are..."_ _ _ _

____"Keith also told me why you didn't want to come out," she added, and it cut him completely. There was a kind of long silence, in which Ariela waited for him to say something, but Shiro stayed mute. "Shiro, there's nothing to feel bad about," she said and a spark of fury crossed his eyes._ _ _ _

____"They are horrible, Ariela. I want to throw up when I see them," he muttered through gritted teeth._ _ _ _

____"I bet you are exaggerating. Look, I have stretch marks and moles and freckles and regrettable tattoos and a little scar on my feet. I know they don't compare to whatever you have, but if you can see mine I can see yours," she said, and then chuckled. "That sounded awful. I apologise, my mind is not in its proudest moment."_ _ _ _

____"I don't want you to think I'm disgusting," Shiro said, completely ignoring what Ariela had just said. She sighed again._ _ _ _

____"Those scars are the physical memory of what you went through. They are not disgusting, they are honourable. You probably shouldn't be alive right now, and those scars just prove how you mocked death," she said. Shiro paused again._ _ _ _

____"You promise you won't hate them?" he asked._ _ _ _

____"I pinky promise."_ _ _ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -¡Lance!¡Es tu chance de ponerla con el Nico Di Angelo espacial!: Lance! This is your chance of getting laid with space Nico Di Angelo!
> 
> -¡'tás ambientosa hoy, eh!: You're looking for trouble today, huh?
> 
> Well, things are getting Tom-Hiddleston's-laugh-worthy (ehehehhehehe). Now that I have finally sat the FCE (First Certificate Exam, a Certificate from Cambridge) and I'm on my summer holidays I'll have much more free time, so in the next two month's this fic might be finished, but I'm not sure, delays always can happen.  
> For the klance fans, calm down. They are the late bloomers in this fic.  
> Don't forget to leave kudos if you are liking it and, if you have the time, comment everything and anything you want. Reviews are always useful and recieved with open arms. Also, I'll leave my blog's url here ([http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/](url)), where everything is this fic related and I can chat more freely with you! Feel free to send asks about anything1
> 
> See you in the next chapter! Love ya.


	29. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

_I don't want you to think I'm disgusting_.

Once she had managed to reassure Shiro that everything would be alright, her servant had dragged her back to her bedroom. They had to wait until midnight for the procession to the goddess temple to begin. The men went first, they arrived at the temple and waited for the women. And then the ceremony started.

So she was stuck in her bedroom, alone with her servant because Lance had already gone away. She was waiting and thinking, Shiro's words echoing in her mind over and over again. She knew that he thought poorly of himself, but she never suspected it came to this point. Because they had been talking, that daily hour they had when she helped Shiro try to recover from his PTSD.

You'll see, PTSD is strongly involved with the mind not being able to register a really traumatic situation and the best way to treat it is make the person that suffers put the traumatic experience into words so that their mind can slowly register the traumatic event and get some closure. So, every night before going to sleep, Shiro and she would sit down, and he would tell her everything he could remember. And yes, he had many times explained how much he had hated himself for not being stronger, for not being braver or smarter or more skilled, for not saving the Holts or not killing Zarkon when "he had the chance". But, in those many many nights, the subject of him hating his body or at least what had been done to it had never surged.

So that was just another problem to write down and talk about with Shiro, and she was thinking about how she could bring it up again when the second priest appeared and told her that her procession was about to start.

And, as the women walked in the dark of the night and sweated like pigs (no pun intended) because of the hot and heavy air, towards the temple in the edge of a cliff that looked to the sea, Shiro was panicking in that same temple, as the priest explained him about the ritual; it was all related to fire and water. Fire represented the women; the temptation of sexual passion and the destructiveness of the flames (because women destroyed everything, apparently). Water was men; the fierceness of the waves and the life giver (because, yeah, women were only a small part in this whole birth giving business). In this ritual, both elements should be balanced and that lead to the fertility because... And then Shiro just stopped listening to focus on is own dread.

He was panicking. He and all of the men had already arrived at the temple along with his friends, but they hadn't been allowed to stay with him. The only ones allowed into the "offering circle" where the priests and the two offerings, so he was stuck in the middle of the temple's principal room with the priest's cold glare digging at his left temple. Many of the Keuskerians were pointing at him and murmuring, probably wondering where all of those scars had come from, and his friends could do nothing but death-glare the one's pointing at him and smile with confidence to Shiro.

He couldn't stop thinking about many things. What if what happened that night actually affected his relationship with Ariela? What if, the minute she saw him, she felt repelled? He felt so tempted to bail; now that the Castle was almost totally repaired they were supposed to have the ability to flee, so he would tell Ariela that he wouldn't do it when they were left alone, and the next morning they would run away. But a servant had told him about how the last couple that refused to participate had been burnt alive in the pyre the morning after. He didn't want to be burnt alive, but that also brought questions to his mind. How the fuck did the priests know if you had done it the same night? Better not think about that. 

He was panicking, hard. But then the giant gates of the temple, bathed in gold, opened and he suddenly couldn't breathe but in a good way.

Ariela was stunning. He immediately noticed how her clothes had been made to remark her curves and try to make her loo a little bit more round. Jewels shone, catching both the moon's and the torches' light, and fabric flickered in the air thanks to the ocean breeze. She looked distant, as she walked distractedly, eyes nailed on the floor. She didn't look up until she saw Shiro's feet, and when she did look up he almost wished she hadn't.

Her expression twisted into something Shiro didn't want to analyze when her eyes encountered the first scar, a deep nasty cut along Shiro's right hip. She kept going, slowly, taking her sweet time to inspect all of them. She opened her mouth to say something when the priest spoke.

"Kneel." They knelt on the floor, face to face.

"Shiro, I...," she started, but the priest shushed her, gaining a hate-filled gaze from her, but Ariela kept quiet, just looking at him with gentle eyes as if trying to speak through them, but the man lowered his gaze.

The ceremony was too long and slow, but it ended sooner that Shiro would have liked. It had been made in an unknown language none of the foreigners could understand, so it that made everything even worse, but when they were told to get up, the rest of the people already leaving the temple, and taken to an adjacent room he wished to listen to that ceremony forever.

"Don't do anything sketchy," one of the priests said, and he closed the golden doors shut.

The room was huge, and it almost didn't have walls. Windows that reached the high vaulted ceiling gave an amazing sight of the agitated ocean, red with blue designs curtains flopping in the air because of the wind. Ariela's skirt was doing something similar, and she suddenly felt really refreshed from the heat of the night and the hot of the nerves and anxiety. Because, yeah, sex wasn't a spiky subject with her. As long as it was done with someone you trusted then it was all okay. But this was _Shiro_ , mister hot beef, mister mentally and physically scared, mister "I can't lose my only pillar". He was something delicate and complicated in her eyes, and she just didn't want to damage him more.

She eyed the huge bed to their right, red covers probably made of silk looking too inviting for a good sleep instead of sex, and walked towards Shiro to grab his hand.

"Come here," Ariela told him with a smile, as she dragged him towards the bed. Shiro wanted to escape, fling himself out of one of those windows and into the raging ocean, but instead he followed her suit and sat down at the edge of the bed.

"You are tense," she told him, as she knelt behind him on the bed.

"You are disgusted," he replied with a grumble, and Ariela's head popped up from behind him, hair and flowers tickling him in the right shoulder.

"What do you mean?" she asked confused, worrying more when he didn't look at her.

"I saw you looking at them before, you looked disgusted," Shiro answered, and Ariela rested her head on his shoulder, her hands sliding up his back and started to massage him. "I know you don't like them, but I can't do anything about them." He sounded like he was defending himself from a verbal attack.

"I have no problem with your scars, Shiro. I don't think they are disgusting," she said, kissing one that started at the base of his neck to prove her point, making Shiro shudder and his breath tangle on his throat. "Is the people that did this to you the ones I don't like," she added.

"So you don't hate them," he asked, finally turning his head to catch her eyes, the knot on his stomach slowly starting to undo.

"I don't, and I can kiss them all to prove it if you want to, but it'll take a while," she smiled, looking at him with half lidded eyes. His gut tied itself into a knot again. "So, how do you want to do this?" she asked, and Shiro let out a breathy laugh, sending warm air that reeked of jasmines against Ariela's skin.

"Okay, fuck it," he muttered jokingly, as he turned his body slightly to face her. "Um..." he mumbled, as he awkwardly put his left hand on her waist, feeling the muscle twitch under his warm touch. Ariela stopped breathing, the only sound filling the air being the crashing of the waves down on the shore and the curtains flying with the soft wind, that carried the salty sea water air towards them.

"Can I?" she asked, pointing at his lap, and he nodded even before actually thinking what it meant, Ariela's ankle bracelets tinkling softly as she slipped her right leg over his and sat on his lap, putting her hands on his chest and taking in a deep breath. "If there's anything you don't like you just have to say it, alright?" she asked, looking at his lips.

"Same," he breathed out before she leant in.

And, just like the first time they had kissed, she just pressed her lips against his for a few seconds, before parting and putting a few centimetres between them, breathing hot puffs of air that tasted really sweet into his mouth. Shiro, again, reached out for her face and cupped her jaw, pressing his thumb on her lower lip and sliding it, loving how the flesh moved and how the paint faded. He leant in the second time, this time lips actually tangling and mouths moving, slowly.

It was basic kissing for a few minutes, Ariela slowly rubbing over his collarbones and shoulders, not minding the roughness of the scars at all, as she tilted her head. Shiro put his right hand on her waist too, the cold metal biting into her hot skin and making her break the kiss and hiss, but it was just like the time she had gone into that weird heat. She was giving off that scent of chocolate and roses that made his head swim, the only thought that floated on it was _having her_ , so he just put his left hand on her nape and pulled her in again, turning the kiss into something more hungry, but still slow, making the woman sigh against his skin.

He made her part her lips and slipped his tongue in her mouth, her taste not being familiar but not unknown either, and he thought he would gladly get to know it better, as he lowered the hand on the woman's waist to her hips and pulled her even nearer to him, pressing her body flush against his and feeling the metal fingers digging into her skin, stopping because of the bone. The thought that it might hurt her crossed his mind quickly, but he brushed it off when she moaned lowly and longly in his mouth, the sound quickly travelling down to his groin and making him shiver.

His whole body felt too hot, muscles tensing and relaxing constantly, his skin feeling too sensitive and enjoying the caress of the red clothes and Ariela's soft hands, as she slid them from his chest to his nape and back, starting to scratch slowly, in rhythm with their kissing and the circles Shiro was rubbing against her hipbone, enjoying how his finger slipped on one side and then the other. The nervous knot on his stomach was slowly fading away, as he gave in to the feelings and the scent. He had forgotten how good it felt. Because, besides from the cuddling, the only physical contact he had been having for the last year and a half was fists or other harmful things landing on his skin and usually splitting it over, causing the scars Ariela was running her fingers over, making him shiver and gasp for breath when they broke the kiss to breathe.

"You okay?" she asked, her eyes still closed, and he whispered a breathy yes, as he licked his lips and looked at her; lips no longer red because of the paint, but because of how much he had sucked and bitten on them, making them swell. He lifted the hand that was still cupping her jaw and ran it over her hair, and surprisingly she threw her head back to follow the move, exposing her tanned throat. Shiro dove in without thinking, placing a really big open-mouthed kiss on her jugular, repeating the motion over and over again, as he slowly made his way up to her chin and then back down to the place where her collarbones met. Ariela gasped at the feeling of the hot mouth closing around the skin of her throat, hand flying up to the part of Shiro's hair that was longer and tugging gently.

If someone asked, none would be able to answer who had started to grind, but it was slow and dragged long breaths out of them, hips moving together and making their minds fog even more. Shiro groaned, the friction on his crotch feeling so good, as he slid both of his hands down and grabbed Ariela's ass, making her let out a breathy chuckle when he started to set the rhythm he wanted. She leant in, starting her duty to suck on the side of his jaw until the skin was swollen, littering the white pale skin with red marks that looked so good and sinful at the same time when she opened her eyes to look at them. She could feel the arousal already pooling in the pit of her stomach, making her skin more sensitive and the want grow stronger.

"We should move it to the real part of the bed where we don't fall down," and he immediately stood up, Ariela tangling her legs around his waist before kissing him even more hungrily.

Shiro walked around the bed as he kept kissing her, his tongue working hard on the woman's mouth and making her sigh and moan before he dropped her in the middle of the bed and crawled on top of her. The smell of roses and chocolate was practically drowning him, making the only thought in his mind being how good it all felt, how nice it was to hear and see the woman underneath him, taste the salt in her skin as he lowered himself to kiss and lick his way to her cleavage.

He rose his eyes and Ariela was nodding, throwing her arms up to help him, even before he asked anything. He helped her slide out of the top and proceeded with his job, before Ariela flipped him over, straddling his hips.

"I won't let you do everything alone," she laughed in his ear with sultry voice, making Shiro groan as she bit on his earlobe, before sliding down.

"Oh, god," he moaned.

# \- - -

Shiro was snoring. He had never snored ever since he had come back from the Galra ship. Keith was in between wishing he could take pictures, cringing, and admiring how relaxed his brother was.

Shiro was sleeping on his back, one arm thrown over his eyes and the other around Ariela, holding her close to his chest. She was curled up against him, head resting on his chest and arms wrapped around Shiro's waist. A red sheet was covering them both, luckily, because when the crew of the Castle of Lions got into the room Pidge and Nallely started playing a game of who could spot the more clothes, and they had spotted absolutely everything the two black paladin's had been wearing last night, thrown around the bed.

The only thing stopping Lance from jumping onto Shiro's bones when he saw Ariela's neck and shoulders peppered with hickeys was seeing the man's neck and shoulders _covered_ with hickeys _and_ bite marks.

They were all there, as it was a tradition for the family and friends of the offerings to be the ones to wake the "happy couple" up the next day and congratulate them on the expectancy. But, being the crew, they were there just to mock them. 

"I honestly don't know what you see in him," Nallely muttered, squinting at Shiro, and Lance snorted.

"C'mon. You might not like guys, but you have to admit he is hot," he said, and Nallely turned to look at Allura with a side smile, nonchalantly.

"He is certainly not my type," she said. Allura heard her and turned to catch the Grigkean's eyes on her. The princess blushed deeply in record time, nailing her eyes on the bed's headboard and not moving a single muscle as if Nallely was some sort of predator that would jump on her if she moved. Good luck Lance was going after Keith now because he was not sure if he could compete with _that_. 

"So, who will be the one to wake them up?" Allura asked.

"SHIRO! WAKE UP!" Keith screamed, using his hands as a horn, and Shiro's eyes shot open, his whole body tensing before relaxing, and then noticing they were not alone and tensing again.

"Guys? What are you doing here?" he asked as he rubbed his face with one hand and gripped the sheets with the other. Ariela murmured something and sneaked behind the sheets, curling herself into a ball.

"The priest said something about us having to wake you up," Hunk answered, and Ariela _growled_ at the mention of the priest like a dog would growl at someone who had attacked their owner. She seemed to hate the guy.

"Did something happen with him?" Keith asked, picking up the threat not only in the growl but in the scent that had suddenly started to filter in the room.

Shiro got red that Coran was surprised he didn't faint after all of his blood travelled to his chest, neck and ears. Ariela just kept growling, the sound becoming louder with each second passing. 

"I rather not talk about it," Shiro said.

"Whatever. We brought you clothes. The Castle is ready. Once you are dressed we are leaving this planet. We have plenty to do," Allura said, shrugging as she dropped the stack of clothes they had taken from their rooms. "C'mon guys," she said, and all the crew left the room quickly.

"I wonder what she has been doing this last week. She was kind of tense but happy at the same time," Ariela said, as she popped back from under the blankets and got out of the bed, making Shiro blush even harder, as she went to fetch her clothes. Then he spotted the finger-shaped bruises on her left hip.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, pointing at them, but she dismissed it with a gesture of her hand, as she slipped in her underwear.

"You are saying that just because you didn't see your back," was her answer.

She was already putting on a pastel pink jumpsuit by the time Shiro had the balls to get up too, leaving the cover of the red sheets behind and start to get dressed.

"How much do you think they will tease us?" Ariela asked him, noticing that he was feeling really awkward, with a funny smile. Shiro looked down, smiling too, and noticed the ankle bracelets still on.

"A lot. You are going to keep them?" he asked, and she shrugged.

"They are pretty," was her answer. She stood in front of him, arms crossed over her chest, as she waited for him to finish getting dressed, and the need to joke about it was growing in Shiro's mind.

He was putting his shirt on when he said:

"So, rating from a one to a ten... How good was it?" he asked with a really faked and tense cheeky smile. Ariela snorted, before turning around and starting to walk. She had already reached the door, and Shiro didn't expect her to answer, but then...

"An eight. I was good, but there's still room for improvement," she answered, before opening the door.

#  \- - -

They actually fled the planet, barely greeting the king as the left. After leaving the temple, they were in the Castle, flying through space, in fifteen minutes.

Allura wanted to have a general meeting in that exact moment, but she allowed them to have a really quick shower (Ariela had to stay behind to drink a small blue pill that Allura gave her, along with a glass of water) and return running to the room where they had established their meetings base.

The Castle was prepared to fit three thousand people more than comfortably, so there were many rooms with multiple purposes that hadn't been used because... They were ten people too busy to explore the Castle, and the only two that knew their way around it would feel too nostalgic if they visited the rooms that used to be boiling with life. The ballroom, the communication room, the other training decks, the observatory, and the living room. Because the last week Pidge had practically lived on the abandoned control deck, being interviewed by annoying people, Allura and Coran had reconfigured the Castle. Now you could access to almost everything from any room and had moved their "office" to the living room of the ninth floor.

The paladins had never been out of the first floor and the basements, so it was really weird for them to discover that surprisingly big (really big, prepared to hold at least a hundred and fifty people at one) room on the ninth floor. It had carpeted rooms, sofas, chairs, tables, empty shelves, actual beanbags, and an amazingly wide picture window that you could program to show the place you wanted (like a beautiful view of an Altean city).

Shiro and Ariela appeared on the living room with their hair still dripping, Lance guiding them and looking at everything with wide-eyed. Just in the centre, under a huge floating cubic lamp of warm light, the rest of the crew was waiting for them. A computer (a blue, flat square that allowed you to access to all of the information on the Castles software and create holograms to your liking) had been placed on a white coffee table, and it was showing pictures of different galaxies, the images changing every five seconds. The planets were marked red, green or blue.

"While you two rested this long week, we decided that we have had enough," Allura started, as she sat gracefully on a sofa in front of the computer. Ariela smiled when she noticed what she was wearing. The woman had used the synthesiser to create a beautiful white dress with crossed straps and an asymmetrical skirt. Nallely had her eyes nailed on the coffee table, knowing that if she looked she wouldn't be able to part her eyes.

"Did we do something wrong?" Shiro asked, nervous, as he sat down next to Keith in another sofa. Ariela just sat on the floor, back resting against the sofa where Lance was sitting.

"No," Coran answered.

"You have been thoroughly trained, and our crew is stronger now. But, even though our situation has improved we will never be able to actually defeat the Empire if we go planet by planet, freeing them just to go away and have the Galra colonising them again," Allura started, and with a gesture of her hand, the hologram expanded. "Lance and Coran helped me to divide the universe into quadrants. We used the intelligence and the distress calls the Castle has been recollecting this past ten thousand years to estimate which planets are still free and putting up a fight."

"We managed to make a thousand allies, more or less," Lance proceeded, surprising Ariela. "We have been making calls day and night, but we managed to have at least five fighting planets on our side per each quadrant that will be trying to take the Galra down on their own. They help us freeing the slaves and we focus on destroying the power chain," he explained.

"There are a few planets that didn't want to do business on video call, so we will have to pay them a visit. We are starting tomorrow, and this is the hard part," Allura started, calling their attention to her. "We can't afford wasting more time doing everything we can to get an alliance. If it hadn't been because we wouldn't be able to repair the Castle we would have left Keskeuro on their own. From now on, if a planet says no, we walk away and leave them to their own luck," she said, and Ariela thought it was a little rough, but then she saw the mixture of hurt and determination in the princess' eyes and knew that it was the right thing.

"Isn't it a little bit..., I don't know, mean? Maybe they are just afraid," Hunk said, and Allura sighed.

"It is mean. It is really really mean, Hunk," she started. "But you know what else is mean? What the Empire is doing. This week alone the Galra colonised one hundred new planets and destroyed twenty. We are in the middle of a war and time is not something we have on our side," she explained.

"We are outgunned, outmanned, outnumbered, outplanned," Ariela said, gaining a snort from Lance. "There is no time to be afraid, Hunk. Neither for us nor for them."

"Yeah, I get it," he said.

"Kieth, Nallely and Sugey have been cataloguing our allies and setting an inner net of help. Who has what and who needs what. When we have the files ready we will send them to all or our allies. A contact list of resources and help," Allura kept explaining.

"Do we know anything about if Haxus was able to contact the Galra? Records on the Castle's communication system, anything?" Shiro asked.

"Either he couldn't do it or he did it without leaving a trail. By the way, Ariela, a bazillion of your friends and familiars called saying that they saw the video of you fighting Haxus on the news and that they needed to talk to you whenever you had the chance," Nallely said.

"You spoke with my friends and family?" she asked, assuming that with family the Grigkean meant the McClains.

"Yeah, I just explained the situation shortly and told them you would return the call as soon as you could," she answered.

"I am so fucked. I will get an earful from Idania tonight," she groaned, burying her face in her hands, as Lance compassionately rubbed her back.

"Talking about people on Earth," Pidge started, tapping a few things on a tablet and the hologram changed to a page of a magazine. The picture of the crew the day they had first spoken with Admiral Garrison was there with the title "We are at war, and this are our soldiers". "The public loves us, the government is unstable," she said.

"Wait, there's a public?" Shiro asked, disbelief tainting his voice, as he questioned the choice of word.

"Yes, _public_. Apparently not being invaded by the Galra yet has made your people feel untouchable and they are watching all of this from behind a screen," Coran said, rolling his eyes. "That Admiral of yours asked us to record the battles and send the good footages to him," he explained. Keith growled.

"They are profiting from a war where millions are dying every day," he said through gritted teeth.

"That is what happens in every war, Keith. Don't be surprised," Hunk said.

"And I used to think you were punny," Allura sighed, making all of the human eyes travel towards her, and she noticed the offence in their expressions. "Oh, come on. Your species seems weak and stupid at the beginning," she insisted, and all of the aliens backed her up.

"But, if it makes you feel better, once I knew you I thought that humans were incredibly dangerous," Sugey added, making Ariela smile.

"Continuing on the topic," Allura said. She grabbed another tablet, tapped a few things, and an actual schedule appeared. "We have fifteen training decks available now, so I took the freedom to rearrange your training schedules. The training will be more intensive from now on. Your team bond is really strong, so we will be focusing on the individual stuff. Coran managed to activate the training tutor simulations, and Pidge and Sugey built these," she said, taking a box from under the sofa.

"They are miniaturised versions of the tablets. They allow you to access the Castle's net wherever you are, and I added a few gadgets to make it work like cellphones. Everyone's schedules are uploaded there, along with a map of the castle. There's also a better version of Whatsapp and you can take pictures, record audio and I don't know what else. You can also access to the internet from them and install stuff. Go crazy," Pidge said, as she grabbed the box and gave each of the members of the crew one of the devices.

"It'll help us to get in touch when you don't have your helmets on," Allura said. "Is there anything I am forgetting?" she asked, and Coran started to rub his chin.

"Oh, please no. There's too much information for my brain to suck in," Ariela groaned, already starting to fidget with the device. "Pidge, this is basically an iPhone," she said.

"Yeah, IOS software is really easy to copy," was the girl's answer. "The only difference is that ours can submerge up to fifty meters, have more than two hundred gigas of storage and a camera that is as good as the human eye."

"You should worry about getting a job," Lance muttered, and then his eyes sparkled. "We should all take a picture!" he exclaimed as he jumped up from his seat, already standing on the coffee table. "All gather up behind me!" he said.

"Lance, don't..." Ariela said, but, surprisingly, Keith laughed and stood up ad put himself in the frame. "Alright."

Once they were all in the picture, Lance smiled.

"Everyone say "Voltron"."

# \- - -

Grigk, one of the few planets that could stand up to the Galra empire, had fallen two days after they fought on Keskeuro.

The news had arrived from Feer's mouth. The king of Menosfor had told them everything he knew with sad eyes, knowing that two Grigkeans were part of the crew. Apparently, most of them had been murdered, but a few had been left alive to help the Galra take advantage of the planet.

Nallely and Sugey had zero hope that their village was alive, being the ones that were more determined to put up a fight.

Allura had been outraged. The news and the Grigkeans reaction's had caused an outburst of emotions inside of her that had made her scream. How could they be so calm? How didn't they cry? She, the person that had met the incredible women living in that village for only three days, felt like digging pins in Galran eyes. Meanwhile, the two sisters had taken the news in silence and just sighed sadly, hugged for a minute and then carried on with what they had been doing.

But then she heard Nallely crying in her bedroom that same night. So she had gone in, surprising herself with the sight of the Grigkean, fierce warrior, crying as she curled herself up in her bed. The sight making, Allura almost run to comfort her, ending up with the woman's head on her lap as she brushed her hair and sang an Altean lullaby.

Nallely hadn't said a single word for almost an hour, but the hurt in her eyes when she said "They are advancing too fastly" was what made Allura realise that what they were doing was useless.

One of the most powerful planets they had visited since this whole deal started had fallen. The only reason Menosfor hadn't had been pure luck, but now they had a really good planet (Facel) looking after them. Had the Galra been affected by the few losses? No. How long would it take recover the whole universe if they kept going like that? Decades and they didn't have that time.

All of those things had made Allura stand up and start calling leaders and urge them to fight, arranging alliances and deals between different planets and organise the new schedules. They were running out of time, and without help they were weak.

"The Galra are advancing in your quarter. If you are lucky you have two weeks before they take over your planet and turn you all into slaves" had been the phrase that had made their new allies heads click and accept joining them.

Joining the defense. Joining the resistance.

#  \- - -

The month and a half after that meeting went..., weirdly.

Training alone was something great at the beginning, but after the first three days, all of the paladins started resenting the robotic voice of their tutor. It was a program that worked with the cameras in the training deck and made difficult-of-understand diagrams about your strengths and weaknesses and told you how to work on them. Also, based on that diagram, the robotic tutor chose what training activity you should do.

They wanted to complain, but they couldn't because they were progressing at giant steps. Their fighting styles were much wider now, and the fights against the gladiator lasted longer, now that they could adapt the style to the one of their opponents or change it once their opponent adapted to theirs. Also, they were all learning how to use multiple different weapons and guns.

Shiro asked her if they couldn't change cuddle partners the third day after the meeting. And although she had started to sleep with Lance and Shiro with Keith, they ended up changing because neither Shiro nor Keith could sleep. Lance ended up sleeping with Shiro, and at the beginning, Keith refused to sleep with Ariela, but the second night without sleep he gave in.

In spite of Ariela telling him that their relationship wouldn't change after _that_ night, it had changed for Shiro. If he was kind of weak for her before, he was much weaker after _sharing a bed_ with her. Touching suddenly built anticipation in him (anticipation for something that wasn't going to happen) and training with Ariela was really hard (seeing her sweaty and panting, hearing her groan and moan made him recall several things that clouded his mind). Being so close to her was like being close to a fire, it burnt, so he was left with no other choice than distancing himself slightly if he didn't want it to hurt anymore. But, when it was time to sleep, he just couldn't. Keith was cold and he didn't smell anything like Ariela (he smelt like coal, wood and fuel), but Lance was warm and the smell of ocean breeze resembled the ocean storm scent of Ariela. He still didn't sleep as much as he used to, but it was better than nothing.

Keith really felt awkward at the beginning. Although Ariela had that thing that made you want to trust her with your life, he resisted to that feeling so hard it made the transition from Lance to her really hard, but after a week he had gotten used to it and even kind of prefer it. He was not nervous because it was Lance, so he was even more relaxed. Sometimes he would wake up because of a nightmare he couldn't remember, and he would hear and feel Ariela purring loudly in content against his chest, the sound lulling him back to sleep so fastly it was ridiculous.

With this, Ariela became closer to Keith and Lance closer to Shiro.

With the new harsh training schedule, they were all incredibly tired by the time where they all organised into a cuddle pile to watch a movie, so the watching a movie became watching an episode of Modern Family and talking all playing some game until they someone fell asleep. Someone would carry that person to the room and then they would all go to sleep.

They wouldn't spend more than a day in each planet, trying to get an alliance, and almost everyone stayed up on the Castle, training, as Allura and Coran went down to do business. But, after a sudden attack where Coran had had to defend Allura alone (although he had done it wonderfully and Allura had kicked some ass herself), Nallely was added as a guard. And that's the story of how the duty of lunch was officially passed to Hunk, to everyone's happiness.

They had to fight the Galra five times in that three weeks and a half, fights in which they came out victorious. The footage, as Admiral Garrison had told them, was saved and sent to them. Not even an hour after they sent it they saw it circulating on the internet. And when they found a blog dedicated to making gifs of their battles and of them they found out that there was a solid fandom. There were ships, memes and blogs dedicated to spreading trivia facts about them that were true and made the paladins wonder how those strangers had gotten them.

The one with most fans was Keith (although Pidge was biting his heels), who was considered the _tsundere one_. There were ship wars and kallura and kariela, having Lance fuming through the ears and starting to tweet stuff encouraging other ships and his own with Keith. He had to thank God the red paladin didn't really pay attention to social media.

There even was merchandise being sold.

Back to the Castle, things were changing slowly. Pidge had started to get more talkative and share her projects with the rest of the team, now that Sugey worked as some kind of translator to difficult technic slang to something for the rest of the stupid mortals could easily comprehend. She was becoming more sociable with them and even started to slightly open up and let them take a peak of her worries and fears.

Hunk, loving this whole family atmosphere, was juggling with his schedule, the lunch duty and spending time with each member of the crew. He would ask a different person to help him in the kitchen every day, and he would also ask for a sparring partner when they had free training time, where they could just ignore the robotic tutor for an hour and a half. And then, in the two hours of spare time, he would try to spend an equal amount with all of them. He was spreading hugs and compliments as if they were change, now that he felt comfortable enough to do so, and had eve presented the whole crew to his family and girlfriend.

Lance was feeling really hopeful and uplifted. Although their new routine was extremely tiring, knowing that their allies were slowly freeing other planets, being able to contact his friends and family freely, and the newly-found fanbase he had on the internet made him feel great. Besides, he was carefully laying the ground with Keith as he had told Ariela he would do. Shiro wanting to have him as a nightmare catcher had presented an obstacle, but he quickly covered it by asking Keith to help him with his swords skills and helping him with his shooting in exchange. At the beginning it had been awkward because Keith was clearly tense, but as the days passed he relaxed and began to joke around with Lance as they trained.

For Keith, this new kind of socialisation was weird. He used to think that the only motive the rest spent time with him was because they were forced to establish a god team bond. But now that everyone was training individually and people actually went looking for him whenever they had the chance... It made him feel truly wanted. He started to loosen up, to joke more and to actually let himself rest from the whole fearless part, sometimes expressing his worries out loud (mostly to Shiro, Hunk or Ariela).

Allura felt like things could actually work out for the first time ever since she had been left alone with this whole mess, having to let her father's memories go. The team seemed to support her decisions and help her in everything they could. Coran was just as helpful as ever. And then there was Nallely. Nallely, who was slowly starting to flirt with her, showing chivalry gestures and complimenting her on her looks, personality and leadership abilities. It made the princess flustered at the beginning, but she quickly recovered her teasing status and started returning the flirting. Then her heart started beating faster every time she saw Nallely entering a room, or when she heard her laugh. _Ah, quiznack_.

Shiro also felt much better. He could stop relying on his Galra arm now that he had a variety of weapons to choose, and that took a heavy weight off of his shoulders. He would talk to his family every day, especially to his cousin Maicon, who was aware of his problem with Ariela and would tell him suggestions while chuckling like an idiot. He was also starting to rely more on the rest of team, having noticed that "showing weakness" didn't subtract from his position as leader of the team, and the paladins (at least the ones that formed Voltron, because Ariela did pretty much whatever the hell she wanted) behaved just like they always did on the battlefield, even though they had heard Shiro talking about his time on the Galra central.

And Ariela was pleased. She was always tired, yes. Shiro was kind of avoiding her, yes. She got scolded by her friends and the McCalins every time they saw footage of her just jumping onto someone, yes. But it all felt like pieces were falling into place; they were all more united now, the bond being there because they actually wanted and sought for it instead of being there because it was needed and it pulled them together. The only thing that gave her headaches now (besides the robotic voice of her tutor) were the interviews. Apparently, the career she had followed at university not being related to piloting or space made her the target of suspicion and hate from the reporters, although she was loved by the public. In every interview, she was treated like a terrorist on the cover.

Like it was happening right now.

"So, despite not having any training as a pilot whatsoever, you are capable of flying the black panther?" a redhead reported questioned her, and she rubbed her face before answering. She was at Bagheera's hangar, watching how Hunk, Coran and Sugey checked the robot's state while she gave the interview.

"I believe princess Allura has already explained this but it's okay," she said with a fake smile. "The robot's mind fuses with its pilot's, so practically I have the knowledge of how to pilot the panther on my brain because the panther gave it to me," she explained slowly, and the reporter made a gesture that showed he didn't believe that.

"Do you have as much authority as Captain Shirogane does?" another questioned, and she frowned.

"Excuse me?"

"You two went together on a special secret mission a few weeks ago, and in all the footage of your battles he never gives you orders, unlike he does with the rest of the team," the reported explained himself, and Ariela was about to answer when a woman butted in.

"Are you two in an amorous relationship?"

"What? No! How did you get that from him not bossing me around? Which he doesn't because the panther and its paladin are a different fighting unit, apart from Voltron. I am my own captain," she answered.

"Ariela?" Shiro called, as he trotted towards her.

"Shiro!" she said, and a general murmur started in the press room. "Is it too rude if I kill myself in the middle of press row?" she asked him in a whisper, once he was close enough, and he laughed.

"Yes it is, and you can't do it because we would die without you," Shiro said. "When you guys finish with what you are doing you should go up to the meeting room. Allura and Coran have to tell us something about a planet," he whispered back. He looked at her for a few seconds, without saying anything, before awkwardly clamping her in the shoulder and trotting away without giving her the chance to answer.

"Can you tell us what Captain Shirogane just told you?"

"Are you sure you are not a couple? Lance McClain has been suggesting it on his latest tweets!"

"Does the fact that you do whatever you want cause tension in the team?"

" _Uy, la puta que me parió. Son insoportables_ " Ariela groaned, covering her face. They could ask her about the whole alien-human-hybrid thing and no. They asked this stupidities. "I'm afraid that princess Allura just summoned us all to a meeting. We will finish this press row whenever we have the time. Pilot Torres out," she said, and with that, they were gone.

"Allura called for us?" Hunk asked.

"Yeah. A meeting about some planet. May be about an alliance or defending someone. Let's go, you can finish with Bagheera later," she said.

_I pity you so much you have no idea. The other humans are incredibly dumb_ Bagheera muttered in her mind, and she sighed.

"You have no idea."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> -Uy, la puta que me parió. Son insoportables: Uy, sun of a bitch. They are unbearable.
> 
> Two chapters in two days, yas bitch. Now that I'm on holidays this might be my new rhythm.  
> Remember to comment and leave kudos if you are liking, and pay a visit to my blog ([http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/](url)). You can send me asks about the fic if you want.
> 
> Love ya.


	30. [NOT UPDATED]

"You called for us?" Coran asked as they arrived at the living room. The rest of the crew was already sitting around the map of a huge planet, murmuring about something not even Ariela could catch.

"Yes, we might have a little problem," Allura said, as she urged them to get closer. Sugey immediately ran to sit next to Pidge and Ariela next to Lance. Hunk just stayed up, leaning his weight on the back of their sofa and Coran aimed to sit next to where Allura usually did, but he discovered Nallely was already there, smiling smugly.

"Humph," he said, just flopping down next to Lance. "Is that Goridion?" he asked, once he focused on the planet in front of all of them.

"Yes. It is," Allura said with a sigh.

"What is Goridion?" Keith asked, leaning in closer.

"Goridion is one of the most important planets in more than its own quadrant. It used to be one of Altea's strongest allies," Allura explained, tapping something on a tablet. The image of a woman appeared in front of them. She was the angelical type of beautiful, a bright aura around her and warm welcoming eyes. Her hair was sandy blonde and her eyes a shade of brown too cute to exist on Earth. "Desa, the queen of one of the fifty kingdoms of Goridion, called Velime," she pointed out.

"Oh! I knew her grandma. A great queen," Coran said, smiling.

"Well, Desa wants an alliance with Voltron, but she only managed to get eleven kingdoms on her side. Apparently, Altea being burned down to its ashes makes the rest think that Voltron will have the same fate," Allura explained.

"It doesn't matter. We need that alliance," Coran said, righting himself. "Goridion alone has twice the population of Altea. Entire kingdoms are dedicated to raising soldiers. Their technology is as advanced as ours. They could turn the tide in our favour," the royal adviser insisted.

"That is why we are going to give them special treatment. We land on that planet and we don't leave until we have an alliance or prices over our heads. Lance," Allura said, making him shoot his head up. "You will come with me and Coran. You are good with statistics and make a good impression on people if you are not flirting with them," she said.

"Um, are you sure? I don't want to screw up," he murmured, and Ariela elbowed him in the ribs.

"C'mon. You used to be Drama Club's president. You can do this," she said, and all of the humans snorted. And Lance actually blushed.

"I'm sure, Lance. I think you've got what it takes," Allura told him with a reassuring smile. "We have to convince thirty-eight kingdoms to make the alliance with us. Goridion is a unity, and they won't make decisions with more than the ten percent of the kingdoms in disagreement. We will have to actually get down there and make the best impressions we can," she kept explaining.

"Goridion's culture varies a lot depending on which kingdom you stay, but Velime is really accepting to foreigners, so it will be good that we stay there. Besides, summer in the south is beautiful," Coran commented.

"We still have to be really careful with our actions. We arrive at Goridion tomorrow, so you have the rest of the day free to rest."

#  \- - -

"Hey, pining man, I can hear your inner struggle from here," Keith joked in a low voice as he dropped next to Shiro on the sofa.

They had the rest of the day for themselves, so everyone had gathered in the common room to watch an actual movie again, but they had ended up watching the recording of the time Ariela and Lance acted on the juvenile recreation of the play. It was almost as good as the original if you listened to Pidge who had actually gone to Broadway with her family to see it, and now everyone could understand a fifteen percent more of the sibling's humorous references. Keith had blushed through the whole thing, not being able to believe that that was Lance's voice and that he looked that good in Aaron Burr's costume. And seeing Ariela with long hair and curls was _an expirience_.

And now, after the two hours and a half, most of them were just chilling on the pillow pit. Ariela was talking with Pidge and Sugey, as she showed them a small cube which Shiro had seen her fidgeting with many times before. Coran and Hunk were helping Lance prepare all the data he thought he could need on the meetings for the following days, they had gone to the kitchen, so that Hunk could help while preparing dinner. Allura and Nallely were lying down in the middle of the pillow pit, chatting softly as they played who could push the other with her legs.

"Leave me alone, Keith. It's not like you are making a move on Aaron Burr, sir," he said, pushing Keith gently by the shoulder, without tearing his eyes apart from Ariela. "I want to die," he then muttered, making Keith snort.

"I insist, you should just go and tell her "Hey, we had a great time that night. Want to try again?" and she will say yes and a third of the sexual tension in this ship will be gone," he insisted.

"Okay, hold on. Lance and you. Ariela and me. There's another third missing," Shiro said. As an answer, Keith quirked an eyebrow and pointed at the two women, who were now giggling at something Allura had just said. "Ah, I see your point."

"Look," Keith started. "You may not see it, but I'm making a progress with Lance. We train together every day and he jokes around a lot and we talk a lot too. We know much about the other. But you are growing apart from her, and not because you want to, just because you are scared," he explained himself, making Shiro bite his cheek as he thought.

"But, can you really blame me? What if we give it a try and it ends badly? I can't compromise the team in such a way," he replied, and Keith groaned and rolled his eyes.

"Listen. I don't know if Ariela told you this, but she "recently" broke up with her partners of three years! And they are best friends!" Keith told him, and Shiro frowned.

"Partners?"

"Yeah. She dated the girl first and then the guy joined in. They are still together, and they are Ariela's best friends," he repeated. 

"Whatever. What assures you that it will be like that with me?" he asked.

"Oh my god, I'm seven years younger and much more mature than you," Keith groaned, as he stood up. "Just do it, Shiro. She won't be the problem if you break up, and it's not like she has to form Voltron with you if something goes wrong. I just can't stand you watching from the distance and whining like a hurt dog no longer," he said and walked away.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then Nallely and Allura snorted.

"Oh, my God. Keith has no chill," the princess snickered. Shiro looked at her with wide eyes.

"You heard that?" he asked, and Nallely rolled onto her stomach to look at him.

"We heard the whole conversation and we both think like Keith. No one can stand your pining ass anymore, Shiro. Pidge started a betting pool about if Ariela would end up noticing or not," she said. 

"Literally everyone in this room thinks you should go for it except you," Allura added.

_Red told me that she will stomp on you the next time she has the chance if you didn't do it by tomorrow. And I told her that she wouldn't have the chance because I would have already killed you_ Black butted in, making him shake his head as if with that he could send her flying out of his head.

"Okay, you know what? It won't be my fault if all goes to shit," Shiro said, standing up just at the same time as Ariela went walking past him. "Hey, Ari."

She turned to him with a smile, and suddenly all the eyes were on him.

"Could I talk with you for a second?" he asked her.

"Yeah. I was going to visit Bagheera, but you can come with me," she said, urging him to follow her with a gesture of her hand. They both left the room, eyes nailed on their napes.

"Okay, Pidge. You lost," Sugey sing sang happily.

# \- - -

"So, what did you want to talk about?" Ariela asked him cheerfully, after they had made half the way in silence, Shiro getting redder and more awkward by the second. Now that he was there, he didn't actually know what to say. He didn't even know what he wanted to ask her.

Because what he wanted was straight up dating. He liked her, and each day passing it was getting worse, like some kind of illness that started to affect his whole body. He used to think that he only had the hots for the woman, but turns out that his dick was not the only problem. No. The realisation crashed onto him when Ariela had sneezed when they were having dinner and he thought "Cinnamon roll, to good for this world, too pure" while smiling. He hadn't noticed he had thought that until Black started cracking up on his head and he said "Oh, shit" out loud. 

"Umm, I..." he started and Ariela turned to look at him, picking up on his blush and the way he was scrapping his neck.

"Oh. It's about Keskeuro, right?" she asked, and he looked away before nodding. They were already in the hallway to the panther's hangar. "Ugh, you are going to ask me to back away, right? Tell me that I'm making things awkward?" she said, and Shiro almost choked on his own spit.

They appeared on the hangar and the panther stopped walking happily towards Ariela when he spotted the man. Then, he just laid on the ground, growling.

"Ignore him. He's a diva," Ariela said, hugging herself and looking down at the floor. "I guess that I could ask Hunk to take my place as the listener," she said, retaking their previous subject, but Shiro started shaking his head strongly, making Ariela frown.

"It's not that," he said, clenching his fists, as he rummaged in his brain for the right words. "I mean... I can't let go," where the words he chose, and Ariela frowned harder. "Things are really awkward, yes, but because I can't stop thinking about it if you know what I mean."

There was a long silence. Bagheera perked his head up in interest and Ariela seemed to be frozen on the spot, before she finally cleared her throat.

"What?" she said, her voice high pitched and low, making Shiro laugh nervously.

"I can't stop thinking about it. It was..., great and I was wondering if..." He just couldn't do it, couldn't say it out loud.

"You want to do it again?" she asked again, punctuating every word with a nod of her head.

_It's not just that_.

"Yes?"

_Oh, god. I'm weak_.

"Oh," Ariela said, lowering her eyes and licking her lips.

"But if you don't want to it's perfectly okay. I don't want to make things uncomfortable. You are a really good friend and I don't want to lose you," he said, trying to look into Ariela's eyes. She lifted her face and there was a spark of determination.

"I mean... It's not a bad thing," she started. "Sex helps us to be healthy both physically and mentally, and it even helps to build trust between the people," she said, nodding a lot again.

"So that is a yes?" Shiro asked hopefully, already stepping closer, but it was Ariela the one who closed the distance between them, putting her hands on his shoulders.

"Yeah," she said, putting a hand on his nape and making him lower his head as she stood on her tiptoes to kiss him. Surprisingly, it was already hungry, and by the time they broke apart Shiro was already breathless and pretty much confused. Ariela laughed breathily and rested her forehead on his chest. "You are not the only one that couldn't let go," she mumbled, before looking up at him again.

"Oh. Well, that certainly makes me feel less pathetic," he laughed and Ariela echoed him, as he slid his arms around her waist. "So..."

"So..."

It went from zero to a hundred real quick.

There was much tugging at clothes, trying to pull the other in the direction they wanted. Ariela aimed to the hallway to go to her bedroom and Shiro aimed to one of the counters filled with the rests of Hunk's tools and metals he had used to repair Bagheera. Shiro was the one to win, quickly pulling Ariela up to sit her on the counter and standing between her legs as she pulled his shirt out of him, hers long forgotten on the floor next to him.

"You said there was room for improvement when I asked," Shiro started, as Ariela sucked on his neck. "What would make me get a ten?" he asked, and Ariela broke away from him, cupping his face in her hands and rubbing her thumbs over his jawline. Her lips were already swollen and her cheeks had a delicious tint of pink in them that made him want to bite them.

"Well..." she started. "You should pay more attention to the thighs," she said, nodding, as he pulled her closer. "Maybe a little bit of hair pulling." He frowned.

"It doesn't hurt you?" he asked.

"I'm tough," was her answer, as she leant in to kiss him again, making it slow and slipping her tongue into his mouth, brushing it against his teeth. She lowered her hands through his sides and then.

"Now that we are officially doing this, can I admit that I love your ass with no regrets?" she asked when they parted again, making Shiro laugh again when she squeezed.

"You can. And I have to admit that I love your ass too," he said, also slipping his hands down, passing the waistband of the grey sweatpants.

"Mphm. I guess Lance was right and I was wrong. You are not a boobs man," she murmured, before licking a long stripe on Shiro's neck, making him shudder. He pulled her up again, as he slid the sweatpants off of her and Ariela kicked them across the room.

"He was, indeed," he said, pulling the woman so she was sitting right on the border of the counter, before kneeling down slowly as he left a trail of kisses down her torso until he was finally on his knees. "So, more attention to the thighs, right?" he asked, before gently biting down on one, before licking a long stripe of skin from practically the knee to passing mid thigh.

"Yes," she breathed out, tangling her fingers in his hair and tugging as he mouthed the place where her thigh met her groin, biting her lip harshly.

_Are you kidding me? Do you really have to do this here?_ Bagheera asked her with an unhappy groan.

_Ish off, Bagheera. You should be happy for me_ she thought back, and the panther just covered his ears with its paws.

Shiro tugging at her underwear made her pay attention to what was happening again, and she was about to lift herself when she finally picked up on a noise that had gone unnoticed before. A cellphone buzzing. Well, not a cell phone, but those devices Pidge had given them that she insisted on calling a cellphone.

"Shiro, pass me my pants," she said, wanting to turn that damned thing off. The man did and she took the device out of her pocket, but before she could turn it off she saw the notifications.

_Two missed calls from Sir Lancelot_.

_"Ari, where are you? I need you to help me with a Goridion thing"_.

_"I'm going to your room?"_.

_"NVM. Nallely told me you are in the hangar. OMW"_.

"Ah, crap," she said, as she put a foot on Shiro's shoulder and pushed him away, before jumping off of the counter and start to put her pants back on. "Lance is on his way. You need to go, now," Ariela told him, picking up the man's shirt from the floor and tossing it at him.

"Okay, I'm running away," he said, frowning and confused but still obeying, as he ran towards the hallway as he tried to put his shirt on, but giving up when he stumbled and almos fell face first to the floor. He had barely disappeared when he came back. "Lance is at the entrance, but I don't think he saw me. But please explain, why are we hiding?" he asked.

"Because Lance will kill me if he sees us," she said, as she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the panther.

"What?"

"Bagheera, open up," she commanded the robot.

_Are you kidding me? I'm not letting_ that _thing inside_ the panther answered, and she just looked at him threateningly. He sighed. _Okay, but I don't promise anything_ Bagheera said, as he opened his mouth to let Shiro in.

"Go, go, go," Ariela urged the man in, pushing him.

"Ariela? Are you still here?" Lance asked from the hallway.

Bagheera closed his mouth and sat still, watching mutely how the blue paladin appeared on the hangar, walking distractedly as he looked at a tablet.

"Hi there," was all she said, as she brushed her fingers through her hair. Lance looked up at her and the woman thought she had gotten away with it, but then he frowned, looking around.

"I sense a disturbance in the force. What the fuck are you plotting?" he asked her, blue eyes piercing through hers as Ariela put up her best mask over her face to fake confusion and slight offence.

"I'm not plotting anything, Lance. What did you need me for?" she said, putting her hands on her hips as she walked towards him.

"Oh, I need you to intimidate me. You know, how you helped me practice for presentations?" Lance asked, handing her the tablet.

Lance rarely got nervous when talking in front of people, but not remembering the data he needed to talk about could take sleep away from him, so he had this method to study: basically he asked someone to act as a mean and intimidating teacher of whatever he had to give the presentation in front of.

"You know you will be able to have notes with you at the meeting, right?" she asked, as she hopped on the counter again, still reading the questions that had been written on the tablet. She didn't understand anything, but she could always act like she did.

"I know but I still want to be ready for anything," Lance replied, but then his eyes drifted to the panther and he frowned. "What is wrong with him?" he asked, and Ariela turned to look at Bagheera, who was bucking and shaking his head as if trying to get something off of him.

_That's it. I hate him_ he thought, and Ariela felt slight panic and a lot of resignation settle on her body.

"Ah, crap," she said again, just in time to see Bagheera spitting Shiro out, who went flying across the room, still shirtless for some random reason. He rolled on the floor and quickly got up, catching Lance's mouth open in outrage and slight surprise.

"Um... Hi," he said, smiling awkwardly, already getting red, as he quickly put his shirt on.

Lance turned to his sister with angry eyes, and she looked at Shiro.

"Could you leave us alone for a while?" she asked, cringing, and the man practically ran away. "Listen. _I_ didn't do anything. _He_ was the one to come to me with the idea!" she started, as Lance crossed his arms over his chest.

"Still! I told you not to act on your want and not even one week later I walk in on you two hooking up!" he practically screamed. Ariela hopped down of the counter and walked towards him, jabbing a finger at Lance's chest.

"What is it that you hate so much about me and Shiro fucking? You almost slapped me when I told you about suggesting him the switch with one of you!" she counterattacked, and Lance slapped her finger away from him.

"Because that was a one-time thing. You had the perfect excuse to screw space Bucky Barnes and you were going to give it up for him, a sweetheart. Of course I would have slapped you. But this is different!" he exclaimed, pointing at Bagheera as if Shiro was still there. The robot had sat down behind Lance, showing that he supported the paladin, making Ariela squint at him.

"What is different? Guess that we do it this time, and then again. We would be like friends with benefits! That's all. Maybe we even end up dating, whatever hell wants it to be! But I still don't understand why you are against the idea so much," she said, finishing in almost a whisper.

"I'm against it because I know you," he started, and Ariela frowned. Lance sighed, putting his hands in the pockets of his jeans. "You tend to shut down and grow apart from the people you love when you are not feeling completely okay. You suddenly are not there anymore. And you know what? I don't give a shit about it because I know how to handle it. The trick is attacking you with worried looks until you are spitting out what is wrong like some soviet spy in a bad movie," he answered, and she snorted at the metaphor.

"Yes. I know I do that, I am aware of it. So what?" she asked.

"The problem is that I know how to handle it, but Shiro doesn't." Ariela frowned harder and Lance sighed again, before rubbing his face tiredly. "Being Shiro and hating himself the way he does, he will probably think that he did something wrong, that you don't like him anymore. So he will shut down and distance himself from you," he explained himself, and Ariela lowered her gaze.

Would Shiro truly think it was his fault if she suddenly had a shutdown? She knew he didn't exactly like himself, but... Arriving at the point where it was all his fault was another thing.

"Shiro may be really strong, but there's only so much he can take. If he has to drift away from you, we will have him breaking down every day. We can't afford that and we don't want that. Everyone is aware of all the shit Shiro had to go through, and we know that he must be on the verge of falling apart every single day," he proceeded.

"I won't..." Ariela started, sighing and looking at Lance again. She looked hurt and scared. "I won't do that to him, I promise. And, if I do it unconsciously you will let me know," she said.

Lance huffed and looked to a side, ignoring her. Ariela walked towards him and put her hands on his shoulders.

"I worry about Shiro as much as you do, and I would kill someone before they hurt him. I would never do something on purpose to do it, just like I know you wouldn't hurt Keith..."

"That's something different," Lance said, shaking his head.

"Why?"

"I love Keith," he said, biting down on his lip. Ariela wanted to be shocked, to have just a few seconds to admire the way Lance had said that (dead serious, without stuttering nor blushing, as if he was talking about something not as important as his first love confession was), but he kept going. "You just are thirsty," he ended. Ariela sighed.

" _Yo quiero a Shiro. Es un amigo, y para mi los amigos son familia, Lance. Puede que no lo ame como vos amás a Keith, pero lo quiero lo suficiente como para no dejar que nadie lo lastime, así como no dejé que nadie te lastimara a vos cuando pasó todo el asunto the Sean_ ," she said, her voice lowering to a whisper as if they were talking about something secret, and leaning on him. (I love Shiro. He is a friend, and for me, friends are family, Lance. I might not _love_ him like you love Keith, but I love him enough to not let anyone hurt him, just like I didn't let anyone hurt you when all of the Sean business went on)

"That is a dirty card," Lance laughed, nervously, and there already were tears in his eyes.

"I'm sorry," she said, hugging Lance close and rubbing his back. "But I had to use it," she added.

"I guess you had to," he said, with croaky voice, finally returning the hug. "Sean used to think of you as some kind of superhero, so I guess you deserve some credit," he laughed.

"Some credit? I went to the principal's office and threatened to sue him when I was fifteen, Lance," she said. "I threatened ten-year-old kids with throwing them off of a bridge and argued with the police at least three times."

"Okay, okay. I get it. You are like a mamma bear or something," Lance admitted, breaking apart from the hug.

"So you won't be mad?" she asked him.

"I'll try. But I will snitch on you to Allura if you manage to fuck up."

"Please don't. She would make dying sound like a sweet experience."

# \- - -

"Is he still mad?" Shiro asked even before the door was completely open. He had gone to Ariela's bedroom to wait, and the second he distinguished her height and shape he spoke. "Why would he be mad anyways?"

Ariela shook her head, closing and locking the door after her and peeling her white shirt off, making Shiro's eyes widen at the sudden action. She lunged at him, pushing him against the mattress and quickly straddling his hips, before kissing his brains out. Shiro's hands flew to her waist despite the surprise, as he returned the kiss with a style that he was slowly becoming really comfortable with, despite being the completely opposite of what he was used to.

"Just forget about it. It's already solved," she said. "But I have a question."

"Ask anything you want," Shiro said, as he pecked her lips.

"You stopped sleeping with me because...?" she asked, and she already had a smile on her face, letting the man know that she already had imagined what the answer might be.

"It was a mix of dreams and having your butt pressed against my junk that made me back down," he answered, loving how she chuckled and dove back down again to kiss him.

"So, now that we are like..., friends with benefits we can cuddle again?" she asked, and Shiro hummed while kissing her neck. "Perfect."

# \- - -

"So one done, and one to go," Allura commented jokingly, breaking the silence that had been there ever since Nallely had offered to walk her to her bedroom.

They had spent all the day together.

Ever since she discovered Nallely crying at her bedroom after receiving the news about her planet, Allura had felt a little bit closer to her, mildly forgetting about the whole "I've got the power over you" thing, and Nallely seemed to like their new relationship dynamic better, because she was much more easy to be around now. Not that it was quite hard before, but Allura used to feel stupid, not knowing what to talk about; now she felt comfortable talking about anything, Nallely being more responsive and sharing more of her thoughts.

After an hour of not doing anything, most of the crew (Ariela and Shiro were nowhere to be seen and no one wanted to go looking for them because reasons) had gathered again in the common room to watch a movie called "Star Wars". It had really amused the aliens, and Nallely had had the audacity to invite Allura to rest her head on her lap. Of course, the princess had said yes, avoiding Coran's inquisitive looks and almost melting on Nallely's soft touch on her hair, as she played with it distractedly while watching the movie.

After that, they had gone training together. They could defeat a gladiator level ten together, which was amazing. After that, Nallely walked with Allura to the woman's bedroom and then went to hers. They had a shower and met again at dinner, where they sat together. After dinner, Allura announced that she would go to the library to do some Goridian demographics research, and Nallely said she would be glad to help.

And there they were, after three hours of being floors up at the library. They had gathered deep information about thirty of the kingdoms that were not in their favour and decided to stop it when Allura almost hit her head against the table while nodding off.

"What do you mean?" Nallely asked, frowning, as she turned to her, tucking the hair that was covering her face behind her ear.

"Oh, well. Ariela and Shiro seem to be kind of together now if you listen to Lance. Now there's only Lance and Keith left and they'll be peace back at this castle," Allura explained herself, fidgeting slightly with her new dress. She had gotten a liking for human clothes, and had created herself almost a full new wardrobe with Ariela's help. Now she was wearing a brown dress with golden edges, a long gipsy skirt and a strapless top. Nallely was wearing black pants and a wide blue t-shirt.

"I'm afraid I disagree with you," the Girgkean chuckled, and Allura frowned as she turned to look at her. She could already see her bedroom door a few meters away. "There's another couple I hope you are just forgetting about and not denying," she explained herself.

Allura's heart skipped a beat, but she frowned harder.

"Which one?" she asked, as they stepped in front of the door.

"Well... I was kind of hoping that you would notice I was trying to court you," Nallely said, with a breathy and nervous laugh as she lowered her eyes to the floor, and Allura's widened.

"You were trying to court me? No just..., being really nice?" she asked, gulping midsentence. The confession had just set off a revolution inside of her, emotions running wild trough her body and making her unsure of which one to feel. Pleased, scared, overwhelmed. There was a tint of disbelief covering them all.

"Well... Yes. It might be different in Altea, now that I think about it, so it would be totally my fault that you didn't notice and you didn't have the chance to reject me before I could make it awkward," she said, without lifting her face and laughing awkwardly again.

"No, no. I-I did notice. I just didn't think that..., that you would I don't know act on it. And... Why do you think I would reject you?" Allura asked, frowning and her voice and octave higher, surprising Nallely, that finally had the sudden rush of courage to meet the princess' eyes.

"Are you kidding me? You are royalty, captain of a Castle and leader of a boiling resistance. Not only I'm not at your level, but you must be too busy to worry about stuff like courtship and..., simple foreigner warriors that kind of pushed themselves into your life," Nallely answered, grabbing her hair with one hand and starting to play with it in the middle of the confession.

Allura could only look up at her wide-eyed and mouth slightly open, arms hanging limply at her sides and being barely conscious that she had to breathe sometime soon or many brain cells were going to die.

"You really think that? I just..." Allura started, after almost a whole minute of silence. "I've been courted ever since I was... What would be two hundred years in your time? Oh, right. I've been courted ever since I was fifteen and never, I tell you _never_ , I liked the person that was doing it nor they liked me," she explained herself, looking to a side when Nallely's eyes glimmered. "I guess I was just reflecting my past experiences with you. You know? Believing that you were doing everything out of pure courtesy or even custom," she finished, her eyes catching Nallely's hands lifting instead of the woman's smile growing on her face.

Allura's eyes followed the hands until she saw Nallely smiling softly as she cupped her face. If the princess thought her eyes couldn't widen more she was quite wrong. Because her eyes did widen more, at the same time a know grow just next to her heart and breathing became difficult. Because Nallely looked great and pure, with her hair framing her face on both sides and her eyes looking at her so fondly it was ridiculous. She looked relaxed and content.

"Would you mind if I kissed you?" she asked, licking her lips (they suddenly felt so dry), and Allura shook her head as she put her hands on top of the woman's.

Nallely leant in slowly, puckering her lips slightly and Allura followed her movement with half-lidded eyes, standing as still as she could be. And then she felt the pressure on her lips, warm and somehow calming. It felt just as full of support and love like one of Hunk's hugs, but it was also charged with something different, unknown. A completely new form of love she imagined she would never have. Because, then, men fought over her for the prince status only and now they were at war. 

The woman parted with a soft smacking sound, but she didn't take his hands off of Allura's face, and Allura didn't take her hands off of hers.

"Can I get another?" she asked, looking at Nallely in the eye, smiling softly when she noticed the relief flashing through the lilac irises, and the smile widened when Nallely softly pressed her forehead against hers and smiled, laughing awkwardly.

"I'll give you one more as a good night kiss," she murmured, lips already brushing against hers before pressing again. They parted quickly this time. "See you in the morning," Nallely said, lowering her hands still intertwined with Allura's fingers.

"I... Can I kiss you again?" Allura asked, and Nallely broke in a full cackle, finally hugging her and giving her a quick peck on the cheek.

"You'll get another one tomorrow morning. So go to sleep now, princess," she said, putting distance between them and raising Allura's hand to kiss her knuckles. The princess' slight blush increased a little bit, but she smiled.

"Might as well call me _your_ princess," she said, opening the door to her bedroom. "Good night, Nallely."

_\- - -_

Ariela was sleeping peacefully. She was warm and wrapped around an amazing scent, her body carefully tucked with Shiro's blankets. She was lying on her side and facing him, lips slightly parted and the volume of her purring really loud, almost as if she was snoring.

Shiro wanted to stay there in bed and watch just watch her sleep for a while, but it was already time to wake up and they needed to be wide awake and ready by the time they arrived at Goridion. So there was no time to be lazy.

"Ariela..." he sing-sang, tapping her nose lightly. She just wrinkled her nose and turned around as the purring stopped, murmuring a no. "C'mon," he started, getting closer and kissing her shoulder and up her neck. "We are meeting important people and we both need to shower," he continued. Ariela cocked her head to look at him.

"You go shower first," she grumbled.

"No. You have your own shower and, if I let you, you'll sleep till noon," he insisted, kissing her again. "C'mon. Don't make me bite you," he said, and Ariela laughed. 

"If you start biting we will end up staying in bed anyways, but we won't be sleeping," she said, finally turning around to face him again.

"That doesn't sound too bad," he said kissing her jawline.

"If you don't have trouble to stay in bed for sex then you don't have trouble to stay in bed for sleep. Goodnight," she said, covering herself to the head with the blankets and Shiro snorted.

"Oh, come on," he whined.

"I said good night, sir," she replied, voice muffled but the blankets, and Shiro clicked his tongue.

"That's different. We can get sleep anytime but sex... It's not that easy," he murmured, straight up rolling on top of Ariela, laughing at her groan when the sudden weight appeared.

"Well, well, well. Someone's looking desperate," she chanted, her head popping up from under the blankets.

"Mhm," he admitted, catching her mouth in a kiss and licking at the roof of her mouth before breaking away. "I want to see you after two years of complete lack of sexual action," he said, as he sneaked under the blankets himself.

"Uh, that sounds like a dark time for me," Ariela joked, kissing him again. "But I mean it. Last night we had fun, at least wait twenty-four hours," she said, biting her lip when Shiro sucked on her throat. "But, if you are _this_ desperate, I guess that we could do something before getting up," she murmured aginst his chest as she lowered herself to make a trail of kisses. "After all, I should pay you back for last night's favour."

They were too busy to hear the door slide open.

"Oh, good god. And here I am, having thought that you were just sleeping," Keith said, voice filled with resignation, the moment his eyes caught sight of the two moving bulges under the covers, that stayed still the second they heard his voice. Shiro's head popped up from under the blankets, blushing madly.

"Keith, could you just go away and never come back?" he asked, voice rough, and Keith rolled his eyes.

"Straight people, can't control themselves," he murmured.

"Oh, come on! That accusation is unjustified!" Ariela screamed and Shiro blushed harder, as Keith just turned around and left the bedroom. "Next time please lock the door. Will ya, honey?" she asked.

"Yeah, I'm sor-Ah!" he started to say, before he moaned, a hand shooting up to cover his mouth. "Jesus Christ."

"I'm Ariela, but if you want you can call me that if you want," she laughed, before doing something that had Shiro throwing his head back against the pillow and grasping at the sheets.

# \- - -

Surprisingly, they were not the last ones to arrive at the kitchen, where everyone was waiting, because Queen Desa had told them that they would be received at the royal palace and would start discussing business over the breakfast table. Apparently, Hunk had been talking with his girlfriend all night long and had just woken up.

"Good morning," Keith said with a smug smirk as Ariela and Shiro walked through the open door. She squinted at him and the man lowered his gaze in shame.

"So, I guess that you've already _ate_ ," Lance followed, over-gesticulating the las word and Ariela rose her middle finger at him, but then Keith started laughing and they high-fived each other.

"Did you just see what I just saw?" Ariela asked Shiro, still looking at Lance and Keith.

"They are getting along so well. I feel like a father that is watching his sons graduating," Shiro joked, and Ariela laughed.

"Listen, paladins," Allura started, appearing from the dining room, and Ariela's jaw fell to the floor.

"OH MY GOD! Allura, is that Elie Saab's dress that Lily Collins used on a red carpet?" the woman asked, running to check the dress out from up close, and Allura kind of panicked when she saw the woman sprinting towards her.

"I-I don't know. I saw it on that funny website you showed me and I liked it," Allura answered, watching how Ariela jumped around her, squeaking and laughing like an excited child.

"You look gorgeous on it!" she almost screamed, and Lance was covering his ears to avoid the high pitched compliments hurting his ears.

"Indeed," Nallely said from the chair she was sitting at, and Allura smiled softly, looking at her with a new shine on her eyes and Ariela backed away, noticing that there was something else in the air between those two.

"Oh! Things are going great lately, don't you think?" she said, grabbing her left boob as she spoke, and Keith didn't miss the way Lance practically hit himself in the crotch when he heard her speak.

"Yes, they are. Anyway. I was going to tell you that you shouldn't wear your uniforms for the breakfast. It is going to be something formal, so I need you well dressed," Allura kept saying, recovering the thread of what she needed to tell them. "Coran and I took the liberty of preparing classic Altean suits for you, so you will we wearing that" she said.

"Oh, please. Let it be something pretty," Ariela muttered under her breath, crossing her fingers and making Pidge laugh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ehehehehe.  
> Well, stuff is getting hot and heavy, and before anyone asks me, Klance will happen in the next chapter. Also, you will finally learn what the whole Sean thing is about and I think that's it for now.  
> What else? Announcements? Well, the blog is quickly growing and I'm really proud of it. People seem to love the chat and quotes that I publish and it feels great. There are fake quotes said from members of the fic, conversations that never happened, headcanons, aesthetics and memes. Also, a friend of mine offered to voice Ariela for some audios I was thinking on making (Ariela singing Shiro to sleep). Do you think it would be a good idea or would you like to hear it?  
> Comment any opinion you have on the chapter or the stuff I just said, leave kudos if you are liking it so far and if you have any question or something to say that you don't want to put on the comment box you can always send a message to my tumblr ( [http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/](url) ).
> 
> See you in the next chapter. Love ya!


	31. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Happy holidays!  
> This chapter was going to be longer, but I decided it just was too long and I will put the third part on chapter 30. Basically, this chapter has Keith's and Shiro's backstory and the next one will have Ariela's and Lance's (how they met and who the crap is Sean).  
> I hope you like the new concepts and characters I introduce in this chapter and that you forgive me for taking so long to publish.

# Part 1: Go home, Hogg. No one likes you!

It had been a rough day, and Keith would probably be crying or beating something if he wasn't too mesmerised petting the African serval cat as she talked to him, quieting the negative thoughts on his mind, along with Red.

"Hogg is a stupid prince. Not even queen Desa likes him. It's like the man wants to be hated or something," Ara said, as she sat on Keith's lap and pawed gently at his nose, the little soft hairs tickling him. Her voice was so nice; it sounded like raindrops falling on a crystal.

_She is right, Keith. There's something I don't like about that cocky prince. No one on the pack does. It's been the first time I have agreed with the panther out loud ever since we met_ Red contributed, earning a soft purr from Ara. They already liked each other, and it made Keith feel pleased, for an unknown reason.

It had been different than with Red. The bond with his lion had to be built, he had had to work on it. They weren't made for each other, they were compatible. They were together and they were perfect together, yes, but there were many people all around the universe that would be perfect with Red. But with Ara it had been instant. He was talking with Lance, the boy trying to calm him down after his encounter with Velime's prince, and he had felt something claw its way up his clothes and climb to stand on his shoulder and head.

The second he caught the hazel eyes with his own they were connected. He could feel everything belonging to the serval and she could feel everything belonging to him. It was like living a whole foreign life in a second.

"But he is right in some way, don't you think? No one knows where I came from nor who I am. Not even me," he said, lowering his gaze, and Ara started nuzzling her snout against his neck.

"Cheer up, Keith-y. I have the feeling that you will know in the future," she said, making him chuckle.

_And you may not know where you came from, but you know who you are. Keith Kogane, paladin of Voltron, pilot of the red lion... And future boyfriend of Lance _.__

__"Lance is the boy with Sean? He smells really nice, like the sea."_ _

__"Are you two teaming up on me?" Keith asked them, squinting at Ara, but someone knocked on the door before she could answer. The serval jumped comically, before starting sprinting in circles around the bed, rolling and stomping on the sheets. She got riled up too easily._ _

__"Keith, are you there?" Shiro's voice asked._ _

__"Yes."_ _

__The door opened and a black snout sneaked in before the huge Tibetan mastiff stepped in, immediately going towards Ara and panting funnily, as he waved his tail._ _

__"Hello, Keith," Matt said, before licking his nose._ _

__"How are you feeling?" Shiro asked, sitting next to him on the bed._ _

__"I feel like _niee_ ," he answered, shrugging, and Shiro slipped his arm through his shoulders and Matt rested his head on Keith's lap. Ara stood up, resting her front legs on his shoulders and started licking his ear and neck. "You are drowning me in love," he laughed. _ _

__"You deserve it," Shiro said._ _

# \- - -

__It had begun when they landed at Velime, one of the South-kingdoms of Goridion._ _

__Magic was something as common as rain on that planet, so the royal castle was in the middle of a meadow, far from the nearest town. They could use a portal if needed; this decreased the chances of someone infiltrating, as there was no movement outside the castle. Flowers of all the colours and high grass surrounded it, a tall and beautifully built edification of white stone, glass and black iron. Creepers made abstract drawings on the outside walls and connected, windows and balconies._ _

__The Castle of Lions landed thirty feet away from Velime's and they were not ready yet._ _

__Everyone, excepting for Allura and Coran (who was wearing his usual clothing), was already dressed in the Altean uniforms (white high waisted pants, white shirt with golden buttons and a golden pin holding a cloth -coloured to match their lions- that went from their left side to their right shoulder, where it was held by a golden band and the fell across their back; Ariela was all black and where they had gold she had silver, and then Nallely and Sugey had the same uniform but without the cloth), but Allura was styling his hair as she talked fast Altean that sounded like curses, words slightly muffled because she was holding bobby pins in her mouth as she twisted Keith's hair furiously. Thirty seconds later he had two small braids at his sides, that travelled to a cute little bun._ _

__Ariela, who had something similar to his, but it was a ponytail instead of a bun, was braiding Sugey's hair as the girl braided Nallely's._ _

__" _Come on_ , people. We are one minute late and the queen must be expecting us with the breakfast on the table!" Allura screamed, eyeing the clock, as the doors of the Castle opened, showing the path of greystone, lined with Goridian guards at the sides._ _

__The paladins froze in place, not expecting the carbine that was waiting there to escort them to the castle. Nallely stood up and pushed the long and thick braid from her right shoulder, immediately positioning herself close to Allura. She had told them not to bring weapons, but her fists would do if someone was daring enough to attack them. The paladins quickly stood together, Lance on the far end with Ariela at his left and Shiro in the middle, and then walked out of the Castle._ _

__"Good morning, gentlemen," Allura greeted, and the eight guards bowed deeply, before standing right again._ _

__"Welcome to Velime, princess Allura, paladins of Voltron, and crew of the Castle of Lions," one of the guards said. "Please, follow us. The queen and the prince are expecting you at the dining room."_ _

__All the walk was made in silence, so Keith had just put his mind into ignoring the guards side-eyeing him (A Galran paladin? Can we trust him?) and admiring the decoration of the castle: plants. Be it just green leaves or beautiful giant and colourful flowers, it was full of them, hanging from the walls or the high ceilings, or resting on their pots on the white marble floor._ _

__The big doors opened and a big table appeared in front of them, covered with all kinds of food and drinks. One of the walls was all made of glass and had an iron door that lead to the outside. At the head of the table, there was a man sitting down, and he was alone. There was no sign of the queen._ _

__The two guards that had opened the door closed it once the last person had gone into the dining room, not even one getting in with them, as the man at the table stood up and walked towards them. He was wearing a lazy smile that didn't reach his eyes and paced with an elegant stance that looked prepared to impose power. He had black hair, pale blue eyes and pale skin too, and was wearing a small silver crown on his head._ _

__No one liked him._ _

__"Paladins! Welcome. I will have to ask you to excuse queen Desa. She is at a meeting right now. It was something urgent and unplanned," the man said, bowing slightly, and Allura returned to bow._ _

__"Worry not. I guess you are prince Hogg, Desa's husband," Allura said, chin up. With that simple gesture she outpowered him and, by the way, the man's smile grew they could all tell he had easily noticed._ _

__Hogg pointed at the table with a gesture of his hands._ _

__"Please, sit. Desa will be here at any minute," he said. And they moved._ _

__Coran, who had been covering Keith from the eyes of the prince unintentionally, moved to sit down, and Hogg caught eye of him. Lilac skin, those ears... He easily recognised the race. So, when Keith sat down, his head was suddenly smashed against the table, his neck surrounded by a chain that shone orange and slightly burnt his skin._ _

__Keith groaned in pain when his forehead smashed against the table, the dizziness that rushed through him impeding him from resisting as Hogg grabbed his hands and tied them with the same chain that was around his neck in no more than eight seconds. The few that had already sat down stood up, Lance doing it so violently that his chair was tipped and fell to the floor._ _

__The air shifted as Ariela's heart started pumping furiously, the voice of the panther screaming outraged in her head. Coran saw the woman moving, but before he could tell her not to, her booted foot was already smashing against the prince's head, sending him crashing to the floor._ _

__"Who do you think you are..." Ariela started. The air suddenly filled with a pungent smell that made Keith's nape hairs stand. She lowered herself and pinned the prince to the floor by putting her right hand around his neck and pressing down. "..., to attack him like that?" she finished. Her eyes were shining dangerously._ _

__The prince rose his left hand towards Keith and, with a twist of it, the orange chains around his skin started to actually burn, making him hiss in pain._ _

__"Keith!" Lance and Shiro exclaimed at the same time, running towards him._ _

__"STOP WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING!" Ariela roared, her growl becoming louder and scarier by the second, as the prince started to claw at the hand around his neck. He was strong, but the woman hadn't liked him hurting _a member of his pack_ one bit._ _

___No one touches our family_ an unknown voice resonated on her head._ _

__"Galra... Soldier. You can't..., trust him," the prince said, gasping for air._ _

__"Ariela, get off of him! I understand, but we can't afford to kill him," Coran said, putting a gentle hand on the woman's shoulder, and she almost immediately let go of the man's neck, "accidentally" leaving red marks with her nails._ _

__"I am afraid that you will have to let go of my paladin or there'll be awful consequences," Allura said, walking towards the prince, who was already standing up, quickly and loudly._ _

__"Tell me how he ended up as your paladin and I'll let him go," he said, voice husky, looking at Allura with challenge._ _

__"The blue lion brought them all to me. He has never had contact with the Galra empire before becoming a paladin," she answered, almost spitting the words out through gritted teeth._ _

__"Therefore you didn't know him since the moment he was born," he started, looking at Keith, who was writhing on his chair, not being able to move because of the chains. Shiro was trying to take them off of him, and Lance was letting the water drop on top of them, barely calming the ache on Keith's skin. "He could be a spy, a traitor."_ _

__"He is not!" Pidge screamed._ _

__"Let me end him. One of our bests warriors could take his place, and he wouldn't have that muddy, sick and dirty blood in his veins," the prince kept insisting, and this time it was Allura's hand the one to close around his neck and _raise him in the air _, making the prince start to kick fruitlessly.___ _

____"I will not repeat myself again," the princess started. She reeked of anger, and it made Ariela flinch slightly and back away a few steps. "You let go of my paladin... Or there'll be _awful_ consequences."_ _ _ _

____The prince's eyes nailed on hers and, although he was already starting to turn an ugly blueish colour, didn't stop whatever he was doing to Keith._ _ _ _

____Another door opened and a woman walked in. She was wearing a long white dress and a golden crown over her hair, loose blond hair falling flawlessly and hazel eyes that had looked so gentle and welcoming on pictures filled with anger._ _ _ _

____"HOGG!" she screamed, stomping her way towards the prince. She made a gesture with her hand and a blue light came out of it, and the chains around Keith burst in small pieces and fell to the floor before disappearing. "What did you do now? Do I need to get you a babysitter? I can't believe my father thought it would be wise to make me marry you."_ _ _ _

____Desa was flaming mad. The air around her was similar to the prickly storm air, and her scent was spicy, making Ariela's and Keith's nose itch. Allura dropped the prince, who fell to the floor on his knees and stayed there._ _ _ _

____Lance pulled Keith towards him and grabbed his face, looking at his neck and eyes. He was dead worried, and the red paladin could feel it. He could smell it in the other's scent, hear it in his heartbeat and feel it in their bond, pulling them together._ _ _ _

____"Are you okay? Does it still hurt?" Lance asked him, as he rubbed his thumb across the place where the chain had been. Surprisingly, although it had _burnt_ , there was no mark._ _ _ _

____"They have a Galran soldier, Desa. They don't know where he came from, nor who he is. _It_ is a danger for us," he answered, and in spite of still being angry, he lowered his head._ _ _ _

____"You have no right to act upon anything. _I_ am the queen. _I_ am the one to make the decisions," she said. If there was a way to catch her voice and condensate it, the liquid could be used to kill at least fifty people._ _ _ _

____Hogg averted her eyes._ _ _ _

____"I'm sorry," he said._ _ _ _

____"Now go. I don't want to see you until tonight," she said, and he immediately stood up and almost trotted towards the door from where she had come from and disappeared._ _ _ _

____It was as if Desa became another person. Her shoulders lost the tension, her eyes softened, her scent became sweet as flowers and the air started to move again. She looked at Allura with eyes filled with shame and walked with gentle pace towards Keith, kneeling in front of him, ignoring Lance's and Shiro's wary eyes._ _ _ _

____"Please forget my husband's idiotic behaviour. There are times I want to grab him by the neck too, but by the time I had to marry we needed an alliance with his kingdom," she said, grabbing Keith's hands and looking at his wrists. "It was a magic heat, so it won't leave marks. I'll tell one of my maids to bring you something for the ache."_ _ _ _

____She stood again, her hands still holding Keith's, and looked at him with such gentle eyes._ _ _ _

____"I am so, so, truly sorry," she said again, and Keith smiled._ _ _ _

____"Don't worry. It wouldn't be the first time that someone snaps when seeing me for the first time," he said. "It was not your fault."_ _ _ _

____Relief washed over the woman's eyes, and she gave Keith one more gentle smile before going to sit at the head of the table._ _ _ _

____"Please, sit. You must be starving, and there's a lot we need to talk about. We have a pretty tight agenda. A few things..., came up this morning," she said, as the rest of the crew finally sat down at the table._ _ _ _

____Keith found himself sandwiched between the McClains, with Shiro looking at him worriedly from the other side of the table. He was paler now, practically white, and he felt as if his soul was drifting away from his body. He could barely feel Lance's hand massaging his shoulder, which was weird because the places where he touched usually _burnt_. Ariela's head resting on his other shoulder also went unnoticed to him._ _ _ _

____"I... I can't feel anything," he said, looking at his sides. He wanted to panic, he couldn't feel his own skin, but it was as if he was too tired, his brain not having the energy to pass the information from his body to him. Ariela's fingers started tapping at his neck._ _ _ _

____"Oh, that's a form of dissociation. You have to calm down, Keith. Breathe deeply and focus on something that doesn't make you feel bad," she told him. "The event with Hogg might have over-stressed you, so you need to relax."_ _ _ _

____Lance squeezed his shoulder._ _ _ _

____"Do you want to get out of here?" he asked him, and Keith looked at him. In Lance's eyes, he had shrunk; he looked smaller, weaker, scared. Ears sticking to his skull, pale, tired and kind of absent._ _ _ _

____"I-I don't want to disrespect the queen," he said, and Ariela got up with a groan. He turned to look at her, watching how she exchanged a few words with Desa, who nodded eagerly and took a bell that was resting next to her plate on the table and rang it. Almost immediately, a ginger woman wearing a small white dress. She had her hair in a bun and a black apron tied to her waist._ _ _ _

____"This is Skal. She will take you to your bedroom and bring you your breakfast there afterwards," Desa said, looking at Keith with worried and gentle eyes. The maid smiled at him too, and he stood up. Lance went next to him, and Allura spoke._ _ _ _

____"Could you stay, Lance? Shiro can go with Keith. We are going to talk about the meetings," she said, looking awkward, and Lance's eyes went from Shiro to Keith to her._ _ _ _

____And then Keith grabbed his hand and whispered the word "please"._ _ _ _

____"I will pay attention and pass the information to Lance, Allura. Don't worry," Hunk said, smiling at her, and the woman thought for a few seconds before nodding._ _ _ _

____"Please follow me," the maid said, before walking away._ _ _ _

____They all watched them go with their eyes stuck to Keith, feeling an awkward knot on their stomachs as they noticed how slowly he was walking._ _ _ _

____After the door closed it took almost a whole minute for someone to talk._ _ _ _

____"For the loom, I will kill Hogg tonight if Camlei doesn't stop me," Desa muttered, as she let her face drop on the table, before start to fake cry. "That man is making my hair go grey and I'm only a thousand years old," she said, and all of the human's eyes shot open._ _ _ _

____"Is there a way for you to calculate how much a thousand years would be for us here?" Ariela asked Pidge in a whisper, and the girl just shrugged._ _ _ _

____"I guess I could, but I won't. It would take time and I honestly don't give a fuck. I left all my fucks to give on Earth, so I just roll with everything that comes up, and you should to," she answered, before grabbing a toast from a little basket and start to spread butter on it._ _ _ _

____"Okay."_ _ _ _

____"So, queen Desa. What do we need to know about the meetings?" Allura asked, and Desa's head shot up from the table to look at her, crown falling on the table and rolling before falling to the floor. The queen just stared at it as it kept rolling through the white floor with a look that screamed: "There goes my crown, with all the fucks I give"._ _ _ _

____"Well. The meetings start tomorrow, so today we can prepare for the first one. It won't last more than an hour. It'll be to briefly present the case and state why making an alliance would be the wisest thing to do," she started to explain, as she grabbed something that looked like a teapot and poured a pinkish steaming liquid in a teapot. "The long ones will start the next day. They would have started tomorrow, but there's the daemon festival," she said, and Hunk frowned._ _ _ _

____"Daemon... Where do I know that word from?" Shiro asked, looking around the other paladins, and Hunk was the one to answer._ _ _ _

____"It's from The Golden Compass," he said, and Shiro snapped his fingers and nodded with a smile. "It's my favourite movie."_ _ _ _

____"Yeah. Those used to be my mother's favourite books," Shiro laughed, and his smile turned a little sad. He still talked to her, of course, but it was not the same than being there with her._ _ _ _

____"You also have daemons on your planet?" Desa asked, wide-eyed and clearly excited, and Pidge shook her head._ _ _ _

____"No, they're something that a person invented for his book. In the books, daemons are like a person's soul mirrored in an animal that exists with them," Pidge explained to the queen, and her eyes shone even brighter._ _ _ _

____"That's what they are here! Well, kinda. Deamons are animals that are bound to a person that has a huge energy impact on the _loom of existence_. Their energy is so big that it creates another living being. Daemons are only born here, though, because of our strong connection with the quintessence, so really few people that have a daemon actually get to meet them," she explained excitedly. "You having that book must be due to a _threading snap_."_ _ _ _

____There was a long pause._ _ _ _

____"I have like..." Ariela started, counting with her fingers. "Yeah, like so many questions." Desa chuckled and Shiro snorted, trying not to die inside._ _ _ _

____"Goridians are the heart of magic, that is how we define the controlling of the quintessence. Everything in the existence is made of quintessence, and Goridiands think that the universe is like a big loom, made out of quintessence threads. This means that one same thread could be, for example, on Altea and on Earth. This makes that the same energy that flows in Altea flows in Earth," Coran started explaining._ _ _ _

____"Usually the flow doesn't really affect different places, but sometimes there's a big cumulus of energy that makes the threads snap, like a whip, and this alters the flow of energy greatly. Usually, it happens short distance, but it also can happen from one galaxy to the other. Threading snaps result in people or places sharing energy, being connected," Desa finished the explanation for him. "Maybe the man that wrote the book connected with a Goridian, and our reality came to him like a dream or an idea that he exploited."_ _ _ _

____"I'd like to act like my mind is not blown, but do you know what this means?" Pidge started, standing up from her chair and grabbing Ariela by the shoulders. Sugey laughed at the woman's scared face as Pidge shook her. "This could explain how many scientific breakthroughs are related or happened at the same time!" She was practically screaming. "Does anyone have a notebook? Or something to write on? I can't forget this!"_ _ _ _

____"Pidge, calm down," Hunk said, a little bit nervous, noticing how the queen looked at her with really curious eyes._ _ _ _

____"But, _Huuuunk_."_ _ _ _

____"Worry not, paladin. You can have access to our libraries. There you will find all the information you want," Desa said with a nice smile, and Pidge clapped her hands together and _shrieked_ out of happiness._ _ _ _

____"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"_ _ _ _

____"I'm glad you are so interested in our discoveries and culture, in part because it flatters me and in part because you have had a great impact on the loom," she said, making a gesture with her mouth that a kid would do when dropping something. "In fact, all ten of you have."_ _ _ _

____If it had been a classroom, a general murmur would have risen, but the crew only exchanged wary looks instead of words._ _ _ _

____"What do you mean, queen?" Nallely asked, leaning on the table. She was sat next to Allura, in front of her sister._ _ _ _

____Desa started fidgeting with her fingers, avoiding everyone's eyes as she murmured to herself, fast whispers that Ariela's ears barely caught but she couldn't understand. It sounded like another language. Who chose when to stop translating?_ _ _ _

____"Our Oracle... The Oracle is a person that has even a stronger connection with the loom, and knows about daemons birthings, she knows their name's and their other halves. She came here a few hours ago, telling me that she had been informed about your future arrival," the queen started. "She told me that there are ten daemons that belong with you in her territory. I would have told you before, but she just let me know."_ _ _ _

____More silence._ _ _ _

____"What?" Sugey asked in a whisper. "How can I have a daemon I haven't done anything great?" she asked, and her voice was so full of emotion despite being so low. Pidge squeezed her hand, trying to support her._ _ _ _

____"It's not about what you've done. It's about what you'll do," Desa said. "We don't know how, nor who did it, but history has been written aeons before it happened. The loom already knows what the future will be like, and apparently, you all will have a huge impact on history. And, I mean... You are the paladins that will end with a more than ten thousand-year-old empire that has affected almost all of the known universe. If that isn't a big deal, no one would deserve a daemon," she said, and the speed of her speech started going up as she reached the end, noticing how the news had made everyone a little bit nervous. A little laugh escaped at the end, and she looked at everyone, waiting for someone to speak._ _ _ _

____The door that lead to the outside opened, and when everyone's heads shot to look up at the person that had just walked in, they saw nothing. Then they lowered their faces and discovered a cougar, licking its snout with ease and looking at them with curiosity._ _ _ _

____"Are these the paladins?" he asked, with a soft voice, and the eyes turned to Desa, who looked more calm._ _ _ _

____"People, this is Camlei. My daemon," she said, smiling at the cougar._ _ _ _

____There was a chorus of "Oh"s and Allura smiled._ _ _ _

____"I guess you have an important weight on history too," she said, and the queen gave her a tired and anxious look._ _ _ _

____"I don't really know how. Maybe I'll be the queen with the stupidest husband in the history of the universe," she said, before shrugging, and Allura chuckled._ _ _ _

____"So, when will we meet them?" the princess asked._ _ _ _

____"Your daemons? Well, if you want to, the Oracle will bring them in..., like half an hour," Desa said, eyeing a fancy clock that was on the roof._ _ _ _

____"What do you mean with if we want to meet them?" Ariela asked._ _ _ _

____"Oh, well... Having a daemon is having someone who knows you fully there's not a thing about yourself that you can hide and, although they would never betray their other half, it can make people nervous," she explained._ _ _ _

____"Does something bad happen if we don't meet our daemons?" Nallely asked, and Desa's lips went thin._ _ _ _

____"It depends. You will not suffer... But you will never be..., satisfied. It will feel like there's always something that you haven't done, that there's a small hole on your life."_ _ _ _

# \- - -

____Skal took them to the living wing, where there were bedrooms for guests, the one's of the people that lived there, and a huge living room. The rooms were wide, with big beds and wide windows._ _ _ _

____Keith was leaning his weight on Lance by the time they arrived there and his mind only kept repeating the happenings of minutes ago, soundlessly. It was like watching a muted video over and over. He barely noticed Lance making a beeline to the white bed, before pulling him to sit in the middle and curling him up against his chest, Lance's back against the wall._ _ _ _

____Sometime Skal walked into the room again, carrying a little cart filled with food and a little pot of ointment on it. She talked briefly with Lance and then went away, and the blue paladin started rubbing the ointment in Keith's neck and wrists, the cool and soft feeling it left in Keith's skin being the first thing that he felt and kind of pulled him back to reality._ _ _ _

____"Would you have let him kill me if you didn't like me?" were the first words that left his mouth, leaving Lance startled. He had been quietly singing a song as he rubbed the ointment on Keith's skin, and the other boy's voice almost didn't make it over his._ _ _ _

____"What?" he asked in a whisper, a little bit shocked by the question._ _ _ _

____Keith was scared of the answer. When he went back into his body he had the realisation that it was really easy to replace him now that they had so many powerful allies. Allura could even find someone better than him in a tick. If he hadn't gotten the team to like him, would they have let Hogg kill him? It was terrifying, knowing that your existence suddenly lost worth and uniqueness._ _ _ _

____"If you didn't like me. If you had the same relationship you had with me at the beginning. If Shiro wasn't my brother. If I wasn't Ariela's favourite. If I was just there because I'm the only thing you had at hand reach... Would you have let Hogg kill me? In that table? To replace me later?" he asked again, eyes slowly and silently filling with tears, as his own words nailed in his skin like ice pins._ _ _ _

____"Are you insane, Keith? Did you hit your head that hard?" Lance asked, pulling Keith to a straight sitting position and making him lift his face to meet his eyes. He immediately saw the tears and Lance seemed to panic._ _ _ _

____"I know I'm not an amazing person and that I'm really hard to be around. I'm kind of asocial, I tend to challenge people, I don't open up much and... I can't help but feel that you all like me because you _got to like me_. It's like you've reached the point when you accepted that you will have me around for a long time and we need to get along. Because I mean, who would like me? I wouldn't blame you if you said no because I don't think I would stand being around myself for too long. Maybe that's why I never stayed long in the foster homes, they just couldn't stand me or I was such a pain in the ass..."_ _ _ _

____It was like verbal vomit. Like, "I don't know what the fuck I just ate but it hit all of a sudden and _hard_ " kind of vomit. He couldn't stop; all of those bad thoughts that he had ever had since the beginning of times were running wild through his mind, and he was too busy ranting to notice Lance's horrified look._ _ _ _

____"Maybe that's why the kicked me out of the Garrison. Because keeping a kitten in your bedroom isn't _that_ bad. They saw a chance to get rid of me and they took it." Lance blinked._ _ _ _

____"Hold your horse," he said, and Keith stopped right away, waiting for the next words. "You got kicked out of the Garrison because you sneaked a kitten to your bedroom?" he asked, and Keith's eyes teared up even more as he nodded._ _ _ _

____"I found him outside the door. He was black and fluffy and had blue eyes. I named him Taquito because I was craving tacos and he was so little. I felt so lonely because I couldn't talk to Shiro anymore and we were going to have his funeral soon and I needed someone and I found him alone outside," he told him, and Lance seemed even more surprised._ _ _ _

____"You named your cat Taquito? And they kicked you out because you sneaked him in?" Lance asked, with a breathy laugh, and Keith nodded as he wiped the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt, humming an affirmative sound. "Keith... You named a kitten Taquito and you think you are an awful person?"_ _ _ _

____Lance asked that with a smile that made him look too pure. It was as if it shone with its own light, making it mesmerizing but painful to watch. He grabbed Keith's hands, and squeezed them, as he leant in and pressed his forehead against Keith's._ _ _ _

____"You are an amazing person," he started, closing his eyes, and it made Kieth want to sigh because of the loss. He couldn't look at those eyes anymore. "You went through so much shit alone. Since young you had to be strong for yourself, you lost the one person that felt like your family, you got kicked out from a place that represented your future when you needed company the most... There are so many things that make you amazing I would need a whole day to say them aloud."_ _ _ _

____"Lance..." Keith said, wanting to stop him because _clearly_ it had been Lance the one to go through the biggest mountain of crap. He didn't deserve so much credit!_ _ _ _

____"I understand that when you were a child no one loved you, or at least you think that no one did. But you need to understand that some people are assholes and that we _do_ love you for who you are..." Lance gulped. " _I_ love you for who you are."_ _ _ _

____"Please don't say that," Keith told him, closing his eyes. Had he actually fainted when Hogg smashed his head against the table?_ _ _ _

____"I need to say it, Keith. It's the truth.We might have started as some crappy kind of rivals but you've become a really important person in my life. I'm sure that all feel the same way about you than I do," he said, letting go of Keith's hand only to tuck a lock of hair behind his ear._ _ _ _

____Keith let out a breathy laugh._ _ _ _

_____Unless everyone is in love with me that's not what I want to hear_ he thought, opening his eyes again and parting from Lance._ _ _ _

____There had been really few times when Lance looked open; because, despite his easygoing demeanour, he was much deeper and complex than he liked to show. It was really hard to catch him with the guards down, the gates open, showing how much he thought about everything. How much he cared._ _ _ _

____He looked perfect like that._ _ _ _

____Lance hugged him close and Keith let him do it, curling up against him and sneaking his arms around his neck. The warmth, the sound of his heartbeat and his scent was slowly washing the ugly exhaustion away, to leave him just tired._ _ _ _

____"Thank you for never leaving me," he said, voice croaky because of the crying, and Lance hugged him even closer and pressed a kiss in his scalp._ _ _ _

____"No one is going to leave you behind ever again, Keith. At least not us," he told him, and Keith heard him sucking air in to keep talking, but then he suddenly tensed and everything changed. His heartbeat started to run like crazy and this new three smells entered the room._ _ _ _

____"Hello, paladins," an unknown voice said, and something climbed its way up Keith's back, making him tense. There were paws in his shoulder and head, and all of a sudden a pair of hazel eyes were in front of him._ _ _ _

# \- - -

______ _ _

# Part 2: There are balls and Lance gets punched in the face.

______ _ _

The only ones that didn't have an overly enthusiastic daemon were Shiro and Allura, so the rest almost shat their pants when knowing the animal. Mostly Hunk, because who would get really scared if you saw a grizzly bear running towards you like crazy?

He had been talking with Ariela, the woman listening to him rant about not being ready to cause energies to burst or something like that while sitting on a staircase they had found while pacing around the castle. The sound of nails on marble caught their attention and they turned around to see the bear running towards Hunk. She had tipped him to the ground and grabbed him in a strong and actual bear hug, as the paladin shook in a mix of too many intense emotions.

Ariela had been looking at them and clutching her heart when something pounced against her back and sent her crashing to the floor, a snout quickly starting to nuzzle her back and bite gently on her shoulders. The animal got off of her and she met pale green eyes, the snow leopard chanting loudly: "Hello, _mine_. Hello! I love you, I've waited so long to meet you!".

The Oracle was a woman with paper thin skin, really pale, that allowed you to see her veins too clearly. Blind pearled eyes and silky black hair, she had appeared running like mad on the room, smiling when she..., saw? Smiling when she saw that the paladins had already found their daemons, and getting close to give them their names. Hunk had cried when she told him that his bear was called Aikane (his mother's name) and Ariela just laughed loudly when she knew that the leopard was called Argentina.

Allura, Coran, Nallely, Sugey and Pidge were at the library with Desa, the queen and Allura preparing their argument for the meeting with Coran's help and the rest reading books. Pidge had gone to look for her laptop and was reading three different books at the same time and smashed the keyboard as she furiously wrote. Sugey calmly wrote things down in a little notebook and Nallely read more out of curiosity than for research.

The Oracle had arrived first, magically, telling them that most of the animals were a little bit too excited and that they should be patient. Then, a hawk passed flying next to her and landed on top of Nallely's book, careful not to tear the pages with its sharp claws. "I'm Ilayi, _mine_ ".

Then Coran with his barn owl that landed on his shoulder and started to rub her head against his cheek so dutifully. It tickled, making the man laugh as she presented herself.

Sugey screamed when her daemon appeared at her feet, pawing quickly at her leg for her to pick him up. The little fennec fox started licking Sugey's nose the second the girl picked him up, whispering his thoughts quickly. "You are so pretty, _mine_. And smell so good, you are great."

When the male lion crossed the door with elegant pace and looking like the actual king of the savannah, Allura was almost sure that it was Pidge's daemon. Something about the irony of such a tiny human having a huge lion as daemon made her smile, but the lion walked straight towards her and sat in front of her, putting a gentle paw on top of her knee. "Hello, Allura. I'm Aryeh."

Pidge thought that there had been a mistake. No more animals were coming from the door, so hers probably didn't even exist. She wouldn't make that big of a change. But then she felt a pressure on her leg climbing up, and when she looked down the first thought that came to her mind was "That is a tiny dragon". "No, _mine_. I'm an Indonesian autumn adder. You read about me once. Do you remember?".

Shiro was on Keith's door, opening it and getting scared by the white tiger sitting on top of Lance's stomach, when Matt (the Tibetan mastiff) headbutted him on the back and sent him stumbling into the room, discovering that Keith was also being nuzzled and showered in affection by a weird cat, while a woman with some sort of parrot resting on her shoulder watched with a smile full of affection. 

By lunch time they were all like meat and nail.

# \- - -

"Did you notice?" Keith asked, finally breaking the silence. Ara, that had been tossing at his lap, looked at him.

"What did we notice, mine?" she asked, sitting up, and Keith's hand flew to caress her head as he spoke, Shiro and Matt looking at him intently.

"Lance's daemon is called Sean," he said, and Shiro rolled his eyes.

"It must be one of his brother's names, Keith. I doubt that Lance is the kind of person to have a boyfriend and not brag about him," he told him, distractedly rubbing Matt's stomach with his foot, as the dog waved his tail happily.

"Yeah, Kieth. Besides, if it worries you so much, why don't you ask him?" the dog asked, and Keith shrugged.

"I can ask him if you want to, mine."

"Thank's Ara, but I rather he told me alone."

There was a knock on the door and before they could answer it shot open, a leopard running to jump on the bed and starting to play with Ara immediately. Matt got up too and jumped into the bed, barking happily, as the leopard jumped into his back and nuzzled his neck, purring.

"She's too energic for me," Ariela whined, as she closed the door. She walked towards them and sat on the floor, in front of both of them, before putting a hand on Keith's knee. "How are you?"

"Fine, I guess. There's another person in the list of people I hate," was his answer, and Ariela chuckled, before whispering "Same". Then she turned to Shiro, who was distracted because Argentina was nuzzling his hair and licking his cheeks.

"Do you know where Lance is?" she asked him. 

"Mhmm. I took him to the library. Allura and Desa wanted to prepare the meeting before lunch," he answered, and then his eyes shot open, as he turned to Keith. "You have to tell her!"

"What?" the red paladin asked, frowning, and Ara stopped dead in her tracks.

"You have to tell her about the _thing_. You can trust her with it, and she can help you!" Shiro explained himself, pointing at Ariela with his hand.

"What thing? A special mission?" Argentina asked, as she sneaked herself in middle of Keith and Shiro and landed on the floor to sit beside Ariela.

"Yeah, what thing?".

"I don't know, Shiro. You remember her position in this whole business, right?" Keith asked, and Ariela's eyes shot open. She was growing impatient.

"I swear I won't tell anyone, Keith! You can trust me!" she practically screamed, gripping his knee. Keith looked at Shiro.

"My opinion is kind of biased. I would trust her with my life," he said while shrugging and Ariela awwed. "But she could seriously help you, Keith. You need to get this deal out of the way or you'll die of something."

"Okay." Ariela turned to look at Keith again. "But if you tell _anyone_ about this I will murder you," he said, practically hissing, and Ariela nodded eagerly. She looked like a child who had been told they would know the secret about Christmas or something.

"Come on, Keith-y. Tell her," Ara said, nudging forward with her head against his nape.

"Okay, okay... I may be kind of..., gay," he said, and Ariela smiled.

"Welcome to the club," she said.

"Yeah. I may be kind of gay and I may like... like really be really gay for your brother. Like, crushing ugly for your brother," he continued.

And that's the story of how Ariela was diagnosed with sudden brain death. Everything around her stopped, and Keith was afraid that it would make things awkward, but after almost a whole minute of calling her name and gently shaking her, she screamed.

"OH MY GOD THIS IS SO FUCKING PERFECT! YEAH BOOOY!" She jumped to the floor and practically lunged herself at Keith, catching him in a brutal hug and making them both fall into the bed, almost squeezing Matt and Ara. "You are going to be my little brother in law! Yes! Idania is going to love you!" And then she proceeded to rant about family and weddings and kids.

"Oh, Jesus," Shiro said, cackling like a mad man as Keith looked frozen in the surprise. Then Ariela shot up, rolling off of Keith and pointing a finger up in the air.

"We need to make a plan! The perfect confession," she said, standing up and starting to pace around in front of the two men.

"See? I told you," Shiro said.

"I know! Tomorrow is the daemon night, and there are going to be celebrations of course. There'll be a ball on the castle, but the queen knows that we will suffer, so she gave us permission to leave after half an hour to the party on the town. We should all go together, you take Lance away and drop the bomb," she said. "I'll make sure no one interrupts you!"

"But, do you know if he has someone back on Earth or something?" Keith asked, looking at his hands, the name Sean resonating in his head. He lifted his face to look at the woman, and something hurt in his heart when he noticed that she was actually thinking about it.

"Not that I know. The last time he dated someone it was the guy that played Hamilton at our play... But they broke up before he went to the Garrison," she answered.

"Oh. What was his name?" Shiro asked.

"I don't quite remember. I was paying attention to Lafayette if you know what I mean. Besides, I went back to Argentina a week after we finished the play," she said, her leopard's head shooting up at the sound of her name.

"You dated Lafayette?" Shiro asked.

"Yep. We were dating before the play, like..., years before. Once he gave me a hickey and I convinced ten-year-old Lance that it was a leftover from a vampire bite," she told them, before chuckling. "He was so worried I would turn into a vampire! How cute." She looked at Shiro, who had a weirded out expression. "What?"

"I don't know. Lafayette didn't seem that cute when we watched the tape of the play," he said, shrugging. Ariela frowned and Keith's mouth fell open.

"Are you jealous?" he asked his brother, and Shiro got red.

"No! Why would I be jealous?" he practically yelled, and Ariela laughed, getting closer and pecking him on the lips.

"Don't worry, Shiro. Lafayette is not here to threaten your status of my friend with benefits," she told him before fully kissing him and thank God she had her eyes closed because Keith looked surprised at a second and ready to murder at the other.

_Friends with benefits? They are not dating? What the fuck, Shiro? We thought you were smart!_ Red screamed in Keith's mind as the pilot nodded.

"Well. I don't know you, but I want to hit the training deck until tea time," Ariela said, getting up, and Argentina started to jump around, climbing up the woman's body and making her lean slightly forward so that the leopard could stand in her back.

"I'll go with you," Keith said, getting up. "I haven't sparred with you for a while, I want to see how much you've improved. And, I still need to talk to you about the whole Lance thing. Are you coming, Shiro?"

"Nah. I think I'll stay here and rest," he said, dropping down on the bed, Matt quickly rolling to be beside him.

"Proud of you, Shiro!" Ariela said, already getting out of the bedroom.

# \- - -

"How was practise with Ariela?" Shiro asked when Keith stepped into his bedroom. He was cradling Ara in his arms, the right one bandaged up. He had scratches on his face and he was probably covered in bruises under his clothes.

"She is a beast. He got much better since the last time I sparred with her, I barely beat her," he said, flopping down on the bed next to the black paladin, Ara sliding out of his arms and laying between them, purring when Shiro started to rub her tummy. "Speaking of Ariela, you owe me an explanation."

Shiro groaned and covered his face, rolling onto his back, as Keith pushed himself up with one arm and with the other he smashed a pillow against Shiro's covered face.

"Friend with benefits? What the fuck, Shiro? I thought you were an actual couple!" he practically screamed. Matt barked, Shiro fake-sobbed, Red screamed with Keith, Black groaned and scolded her pilot, and Ara sprinted away from the mess to curl up with Matt and sleep. She was tired after fighting with Argentina.

"I know, I know. I was going to tell her, I swear. But... At the beginning she thought that I didn't even want to talk to her, that it was all too awkward to keep being friends," he started, uncovering his face and looking at Keith. "And when I denied it and tried to explain that that night had been something like a blessing and that I wanted to be with her she understood the being with her just sexually."

"AND YOU DIDN'T CORRECT HER?" Keith was flaming.

"I thought that I was shooting too high and that I should just be thankful for what I have," he answered, shrugging and sighing. "Besides, if you look at us carefully, you will notice our relationship is like if we were dating," he said, and Keith rolled and sat on top of him, jabbing a finger on his chest.

"You are right. Friends with benefits are one of the closest things to a couple that there is. But you know what? It doesn't give you any right, she can still go and flirt with anyone and leave you just like this," he said, snapping his fingers right in front of Shiro's nose.

"You think so?" the man asked him, looking a little bit scared, and Keith got up from the bed and pointed at the door.

"Wake up, Shiro! For anyone a that has a mentality a little bit similar to us she is a great game! Beautiful, smart, great taste in everything, good fighter, strong, singer... And I don't mention sex because only you can judge that area," Keith said, and Shiro sat up while he talked, looking like he had just had a revelation.

"Oh, god. She's so out of my league," he said, and Keith wanted to scream.

"No! NO! She is _in_ your league. You are a captain, Shiro. A great guy, really hot, astronaut and... You are great with kids," he continued. "What I was trying to say is that everyone in their right mind and liking women would go after Ariela like a starving man would run to a McDonald's."

"But she doesn't want anything with me besides from what we already have," Shiro muttered, and he was playing with his fingers like a little child being scolded.

"You don't know that," the red paladin said, crossing his arms over his chest, and Shiro looked so done™.

"It's her who we are talking about, one of the boldest people we've ever known. If she wanted to do something with me she would have faced me already," he said.

Keith ran fast hands through his hair and fell into the bed, next to Shiro, again. The man awkwardly patted his knee as he waited for the teen to finish his whispery rant about how stupid his older brother was and that _he_ was going to date Ariela if he didn't snap out of it.

"I am happy with my current situation, Keith. If she ends up liking me enough to be his boyfriend, great. If she doesn't or we just "break up" then it'll be bad, but I will survive it. I survived Lila after all," he told his brother, who looked at him with squinted eyes.

"Lila was poison, and deep inside you knew it. And, despite she being a harpy and shitting on your career and your family, you were destroyed when she left you, even though she left you because you were going to Kerberos instead of "staying home with her like a good boyfriend"," Keith started, and he looked a little sad. "You would barely come out of bed and only ate pre-cooked meals."

"Yeah, when I tried to make a salad I managed to set a scrubber on fire," Shiro laughed.

"You were destroyed. If a shitty woman like her leaves you like that after a breakup, imagine how you will end up if you have to separate from Ariela." Shiro looked at him in the eyes, and there was hesitation and fear when he answered:

"I'll still have the rest of you if that happens." Keith shook his head.

"We are like some kind of shitty tape and she is super glue, Shiro. Without her, I don't know how long it will take for you to fall apart. And it only gets worse, because the war only grows stronger and bloodier, so the stress we are feeling right now is nothing compared to what will come. And, did you ever notice? Allura tells us the fights we need to fight and we never discuss the battles with her after they happen. We don't know the damage we cause, the lives we take nor those we didn't even bother to save."

The air was suddenly really cold and it hurt Shiro's lungs when he took in a shaky breath. Because what Keith had just said was true. He had never questioned Allura about damages, maybe because he was too tired to do so or because his mind unconsciously wanted to save the guilt up for him. But he was right.

"We are not alone here, Shiro, but we can't afford to grow apart. We are only ten people there, dealing with the stress, fear and responsibility of a whole platoon," Keith told him, sitting next to him and putting a hand on his shoulder. "I don't like seeing you so down, and I know that without her it will be hard lifting you from the ground."

"Why is the man crying?"

The two paladins shot their heads to the sides, surprised to hear the childish voice breaking the tense silence, and discovered two little girls. One, the one that had spoken, with long and ginger curly hair loose and a red dress. She was holding the youngest one's hand. The baby couldn't be more than one-year-old, and she had the same curly ginger hair, blue eyes looking curiously at Keith.

"Who are you?" he asked with caution, as he looked at the door. It was open, but there was no adult in sight.

"I'm Solara, and this is my sister, Calupe," the older one said, pulling gently her sister's arm. "Say hi, Calu," she indicated her, and the baby lifted her hand and shook it slowly, smiling and swinging slightly from side to side.

"How did you get here?" he continued to ask.

"My mum is talking with Desa, and she told us to wait outside," Solara answered, picking her sister up. "Why is your skin purple?" she asked, walking towards Keith and standing in front of him. The red paladin shot a panicked look to Shiro, who shrugged.

"I-I don't know, really," he said, and Calupe threw her arms at him, opening and closing her little hands.

"Kitty!" she said, laughing. Shiro laughed.

"I think she wants to touch your ears," he said.

"Do you want to pick her up? She is really heavy, and my arms are getting tired," Solara told Keith, as she left the baby on his lap without letting him answer. The baby immediately climbed to a stand, grasping Keith's clothes, and grabbed strands of his hair, her blue eyes opening wide as she started to roughly caress the hair. "She likes you."

"Kitty," Calupe gasped.

"Who's your mother?" Shiro asked Solara.

"My mum is Skal, the royal maid," she answered. "The cook couldn't take care of us today so we came with her to work."

"Oh. And, won't she be worried when she can't find you?" he asked, and Solara shrugged, looking at the floor.

"I was getting bored," was her only answer. "Can I pet your daemons? They are really cute!"

# \- - -

"How is preparation going?" Ariela asked him, and Lance just lets his head fall and bang against the library table as an answer. "That horrible?" Sean let out a small roar and rolled on the ground, kneading the carpet under her paws, and Argentina quickly mimicked her.

"I feel like throwing up, Ari. I can't hold them in my mind, the numbers just slip through my fingers like water," he answered, turning his head to a side and sliding the notebook he had been reading over and over again. "I discovered why Allura wanted it to be me the one to go with them," he said, pointing at a little chart. _Civilain deaths (by Galra), civilians deaths (by Voltron vs. Galra), planets destroyed..._

"How come we never saw this numbers?" Ariela asked, while still reading the charts as she sat down in the chair next to her brother. Lance sat up straight again.

"She has been dealing with all the diplomatic business alone, so unless she told us we wouldn't know, and she didn't want to burden us with the number of people that died because of us," he started, looking at his sister for the first time, and Ariela finally discovered the red eyes and nose. "I guess she told me to go with them because she thought I was the only one who could deal with knowing all of this," he said, licking his dry lips. "Of course she was wrong."

The woman gave him a strong side-hug, pressing her cheek against his shoulder.

"It was not our fault. If the Galra hadn't started all of this shit we would have to let anyone die," she said, and Lance snorted.

"Speak for the rest of you," Lance said, rubbing hi wrist and slightly pinching the skin there, only to get Ariela slap his hand away. "My daemon has his name, Ariela. It's like he came up from hell to haunt me," he said.

"He came down from heaven to protect you," the woman contradicted him.

"Suiciders don't go to heaven."

"And that's why I don't believe in your God. I mean, if he was so sweet and forgiving, why would he deny heaven to someone who has suffered so much?" Ariela said, sitting straight again, but this time Lance dropped his head on her shoulder.

"I will not discuss religion with you right now," he said, and a silence followed for a few minutes.

"If it makes you feel better, I know something great will happen tomorrow night," she said with a sly smile that Lance couldn't see.

"I will only warn you once. If you are going to brag about fucking Shiro, you'll get hit," he told her, and Ariela laughed.

"Is not about me, nor Shiro. It's about you, but I can't tell you or I'll be found lifeless in a ditch."

# \- - -

"The bed is a little bit cramped, don't you think so?" Ariela laughed, as she tried to place herself somewhere she would feel comfortable. Argentina was already sleeping, her own tail wrapped around herself and Matt had his head on top of Shiro's stomach.

"Ariela," Shiro called, licking his lips. He looked stiff, laying there and she quirked an eyebrow as she finally laid kind of next to him. "If something goes wrong with us...," he started, and she shushed him.

"Unless you disrespect me or are bad to me in some way I won't stop being your friend, Shiro. You need to stop worrying about that," she told him.

# \- - -

"Where are they?" Desa questioned, looking from side to side of the ballroom.

Maids and butlers were running hurriedly everywhere, carrying trays and baskets filled with different things they needed to place somewhere in the room; the musicians were practising on the stage, and the children of the staff were dancing to the bits and pieces of melodies they played. Solara and Calupe were there too, playing with the other children, and sometimes running to tell Shiro about something.

The two little girls had stayed with him and Keith for almost two hours, before Skal found them and started to apologise, with them telling her that there was no problem, that her daughters were the sweetest children they had ever met. And that was true. The two girls had taken some liking towards them because the following day they practically lived behind Shiro's or Keith's steps, Solara asking them to explain everything she could ask about and Calupe just babbling and playing with them.

"They must be coming back, Desa. Don't worry," Allura answered, as she played with her hair. She was nervous too, but she knew better than letting her own uneasiness sink into the queen too.

Ariela and Keith had gone training again once Lance and the two royal women went to the main kingdom, Jonc, to the meeting through a portal. The rest of the crew, even Coran, had joined them for a while and together they had beaten a level seventeen of the Gladiator, but then they all returned to the Castle to get ready for the ball, and the other two stayed there.

"I'm sorry. It's just that many important people are coming and they can screw us up with any little thing they notice about you," she explained. "Everyone already knows that the red paladin is Galran, so it can only go downhill."

"Hear yee, hear yee," Ariela chanted as she entered the room with Keith by her side. "Stop the panic and smile, because the future of the universe has arrived."

"There are times when I want to punch that smile out of your face," Lance told her before pulling from the small braid she had made with her hair. He slid an arm around her shoulders and the other through Keith's who tensed slightly, before relaxing again and smiling.

"Please pardon us, we got too caught up with training and we ended too bruised up, so we had to use the healing pods for a while," he said, buttoning up the left wrist of his black shirt. He was wearing that and a pair of really dark jeans, with his hair up in a ponytail. Ariela, on the other hand, was wearing a purple gipsy skirt and a black strapless tank top, with a little bit of makeup. 

"I'm so glad you finally made it! The guests are arriving in fifteen minutes or so," Desa said, and then a bunch of children started to shriek out of happiness, running towards Keith. The platoon was lead by Solara, and Calupe could be seen running at the far back, not being able to keep up with the other six-year-olds.

"KEITH!" the girl screamed, straight up jumping onto him and the red paladin catching her up and lifting her in the air. "This is the cat boy I told you about, guys," she told the rest of the kids, who were looking up at Keith with wide eyes.

"Why are your ears like that?" one of them asked.

"Because... They are like that," Keith mumbled out, and half of the children _ahhed_ at the answer as if it was the most logical possible.

"Who is she?" Solara asked him, pointing at Ariela, who looked at the little kid with surprised. 

"This is my friend, Ariela. Ariela, she is Solara, one of the maid's daughter," he said, and the woman waved her hand awkwardly at her.

"I like your clothes. You are really pretty," Solara said, as she looked down and played with the collar of Keith's shirt, suddenly feeling shy. The woman's golden and bright eyes had kind of intimidated her, although she thought they were really beautiful at the same time.

"KIF!" Calupe screamed, as she fell to the floor in front of them and got up quickly, using Ariela's skirt as leverage and then latching onto Keith's leg, laughing happily.

"Damn, you're like a kid magnet," Lance laughed, patting the red paladin on the chest before squatting down and picking the baby up. She immediately grabbed the necklace his sister had gifted him and put it on her mouth, cringing and spitting it out at the taste of leather, making Lance cackle and bounce her. "That's _puagh_ , right?" he asked the baby girl, making a face of disgust, and she nodded.

"Aww, look at you," Ariela started, walking away from the both of them and settling between Hunk and Shiro. "You look like a couple with their children."

Her fake cute smile turned into a sly one as the blood rushed towards both the teens' cheeks, Keith shooting her a warning look nonetheless. His eyes screamed "If you dare to say a word..." and left the threat hanging there for Ariela's creative brain to fill, like a morbid game of fill the blank... Or like Cards Against Humanity.

A white shine came through one of the windows on the wall facing the huge and beautiful park, indicating them that someone had arrived through a portal. The effect was immediate; butlers running to their designated places and maids back into the kitchen, dragging their children with them. Skal deviated, though, trying to grab her daughter's, but Desa stopped her.

"Oh, could you leave her with us? Only if you don't mind," the queen told her, and the maid didn't look at Keith twice before nailing her eyes on Solara's.

"You promise you'll behave?" she asked, and the little girl nodded. "Take care of your sister." Then she turned to Keith. "If they are ever a bother to you just... Uh... Tell one of the butlers and they will take them to me," she told him.

"Don't worry, they are great, but we were going to go to the village's party. Is that a problem?" he asked, shifting Solara's weight from one hip to the other.

"No, no," Skal answered with aa wide smile, before turning to the door to discover that the guests were already coming in. She waved her hand fastly before sprinting towards a hidden door for the staff and disappearing there.

The first pair of guests came through the door and Desa put her royal walls up, going from friendly and sweet common woman to merciful queen that could end you if she wanted.

# \- - -

Hunk had always loved the concept of balls. Everyone dressing up fancy, dancing, chatting, dining, drinking and gossiping. So, he had been more than excited by this, but then reality hit him like a truck, and he realised that balls weren't reunions, they were the battlefield of the wealthy people. There was people gathering data aginst his enemy, intelligence groups studying behaviour and alliances being made in grotty foundations., only for the sake of destroying common enemies. In the first forty minutes, Hunk had seen groups of counts and countess, lords and ladies, _etceteros_ and etceteras talking with fake smiles, exchanging murderous glances and fixing some shady business over the canapé table.

So? It couldn't be _that_ bad. He had always loved drama and gossiping. He would probably be chatting with Lance and Pidge in whispers, guessing who was cheating on who and who wanted to take someone's lands. But, there was the little fact that everyone was there not for the real purpose of the ball (gathering, celebrating daemons and being shady). No. This ball was to lay them naked before everyone's inquisitive eyes.

"They will end up giving us the evil eye," Lance whispered to him before sipping from his wine glass.

He looked like one of them, in the black suit he had made for himself with the synthesiser, the white tiger sitting next to him in all her glory, and a fancy crystal cup filled with dark wine in his right hand. Many of the women whispered while looking at him, or over his shoulder to Keith, but with one glance of Lance's piercing eyes, they turned away.

The only ones that weren't on the "Shield Keith from the bitches' eyes" club were Shiro, Allura, Coran and Ariela. The black paladin and the two Alteans were chatting politely with the leader of the Velimian army, and Ariela was socialising, which (according to Lance) was really weird. He always said that his sister couldn't stand stupid people and that place was filled with stupid people. Lance had been looking at her warily until he caught her clenching her fists and noticed she wasn't actually socialising, she was gathering information. Not quite sure about what, but that was what she was doing. 

"When can we sneak down to the village?" asked Sugey, that was sitting on the floor with her pretty lilac dress, playing a Grigkeand hands game with Solara, and tricking Calupe into thinking she was actually playing too.

"The queen asked us to stay until midnight, but I'm afraid I will be too emotionally drained to do anything after this shit," Nallely answered, sipping from her own glass. She was stunning; her hair up in a complicated hairstyle and a slim, black one piece that made her look even taller.

Ariela laughed at a joke a guy had just said, putting a soft hand on his shoulder. Almost everyone's eyes flew towards them, and Hunk couldn't avoid biting his lip when he noticed Shiro glaring, biting his cheek and clenching his fingers around his glass.

"Do we have more alcohol at reach?" Keith asked, surprising everyone. His eyes were quickly flying between Ariela and Shiro, imitating his brother's disgusted gesture when the woman tried to break away from the lord she was talking to and the man picked up his hand to kiss, to which she responded with a flirty batter of her eyelashes before turning to them and walking. Pidge noticed the tension on the woman's shoulders and called over a butler who had a tray with more alcoholic drinks.

"That guy is an asshole and I hate him and I want to cut my hand off. Thank you, darling," she said quickly once she had reached them, leaving her empty cup on the tray and grabbing two of the small ones. She downed all of the light liquid in one of them in one go and left it in the tray again. "He's some king's brother. I don't remember the name, but now we are sure we have them on our side," she added, now _sipping_ from the second cup like a civilised person.

"So that's what you were doing. And here was I, thinking that you had dignity and wouldn't fall down enough to trick stupid royal people," Lance said, giggling.

"Yeah, right. As if we were going to stay behind and do nothing. Right, mine?" Argentina said, and Ariela crunched slightly to pet her head lovingly.

"I want to leave," Ariela sobbed, downing the cup again. "These cups are too small," she said, and the butler snickered behind her.

"Fancy people make them this small so they don't get wasted and spill any dangerous secrets," he said, and Ariela turned to him with a smile, eyes gleaming at the man's humour, as she grabbed another wine cup.

"Now I understand so many things," she replied.

"These people are choking me," Shiro said, popping out of nowhere. "Can we like..., flee? Screw the alliance they are so...," and he finished his statement with a grumbling noise. Ariela laughed.

"How long until we can _Cindirella_ our way out of this thing?" Pidge asked, eyeing the giant clock on the roof. Only ten more minutes. "So... Do we like..., sneak out or just say "Bye, Felicia" and run?"

"I say Lance gets his gun out, blasts it into the roof and we "Bye, Felicia"," Keith said, and everyone chuckled, making his cheeks turn a little bit redder. He already had a slight blush on his cheeks, in part because Lance had been chatting with him and protecting him from mean and reach people, and in part because he had drank a few cups of _whatever_ and it was slowly getting to him.

"Oh, no. Asshole is coming and he has company," Nallely said, eyeing over Ariela's shoulder and then lowering her gaze.

"Mrs Torres," a silky voice said behind them and Ariela looked like she had just smelt a mountain of crap, before turning with a bright smile.

"Lord Vonj. We meet again," she said, and he smiled, before putting a hand on the lower back of the woman standing next to him, pushing her gently forward. She glanced at Lance and smiled like a high schooler. "My sister and I were wondering if your brother and you would like to dance with us the next piece."

"Our older brother has only talked wonders about your eloquence in today's meeting," the woman said, and Lance smiled, grabbing her hand and bowing slightly, dropping one of his pick up lines. It set Keith's veins on fire, and Shiro had to put a calming hand on his shoulder to make him notice he was slightly growling.

All that was going through the red paladin's mind was _Mine, mine, mine. Take your filthy hands out of him, he is mine_ , and Red backing him up and insulting the woman didn't help him. Ara climbed to his shoulders quickly and whispered in his ear:

"I could scratch her face for you," but Keith shook his head, as he watched the two McCalin go.

"Please tell me you'll do something about that tonight," Hunk said, and Keith turned to him with a confused look. "You should change your name to Jealous McJealousy, jeez."

"Does this mean an end to your unresolved sexual tension?" Pidge asked, and Keith's eyes grew wide in surprise. He turned to Shiro, looking ready to kill, and the man shook his head, lifting his hands up in the air.

"How did you know?" he gasped, ears sticking to his skull in shame.

"Are you kidding me? I don't know shit about humans and I noticed you wanted to have Lance for yourself since the..., third time I saw you together," Nallely snorted, eyebrows raising at the surprise of something and almost choking on his own spit, but when they turned to watch to see what had ripped that reaction out of her, they just saw Lord Vonj's back.

"You look at him with eyes that say "I want to drill your ass and cherish your heart" every time he enters the room," Pidge added, and Keith turned the colour of a pomegranate.

"How come Lance didn't notice if it was that obvious?" he asked in a small and high whisper.

"Are you serious?" Hunk asked, before sighing. "Lance is not used to have the people he likes liking him back." Ara reacted before Keith, jumping on top of Hunk's broad shoulders.

"Lance likes Keith too?" she asked the yellow paladin, and he scratched his nape, feeling shy under everyone's intense looks.

"He never told me he liked you, but I think he does, by the way he looks at you," he said, and Keith's eyes shot towards Shiro again. He was beaming. He wanted to hug him and congratulate him, but Nallely mouthing the words "You need help" caught their attention. They turned and saw Ariela.

She mouthed the word "Wait" and laughed at a small joke Vonj had made.

"You know, I was really surprised when my brother told me the glorious paladins of Voltron would be staying at Velime's palace. I thought their allies would dissuade the queen and ask her to let someone else host you," he said, and Ariela parted a little to look at him.

"What do you mean?" she asked, with an innocent frown. Vonj smiled, thinking that he could take her surprise to lower his hands to his ass again, but she swatted them away.

"Oh, well. After all the mess they went through a few months ago... The queen's cougar murdered the prince's daemon, totally cold-blooded," he said, and the world stopped around Ariela.

Hogg used to have a daemon? And Camlei, Desa's, had killed it? Why did Hogg have a daemon? He didn't look like someone who could change the world. And why had Camlei killed his daemon? Had it been instinct, some thought of his or Desa's orders?

The woman took a step back to put distance between her and the man, but he waltzed forward, grasping her waist. Ariela's jaw squared and she nailed her eyes in his. You could never trust a person that smiled while talking about murder. She quickly took her arms out of the man's shoulders and she scratched her right arm in a pin that was in his jacket. She hissed in pain and Vonj immediately grabbed her wrist, turning her arm to examine the wound.

"I'm sorry about that," he said, grabbing the pin and showing it to her. It was a four pointed star made out of really sharp glass, the top one tainted with a little drop of her blood. "The _skjalr_ star. The emblem of my family," he said.

"I should get going," she said, giving another step back and crashing against another couple dancing. They murmured angrily at her and she muttered an apology.

"So early? I thought we were having fun," he said, grabbing her wrists and pulling them around his neck to grasp her waist again afterwards. "I'm sorry if I scared you with bloody tales. But if you are scared of Desa, you can always come to our house. We can fit all of your crew mates..."

_Let me kill him_ Bagheera murmured in her mind.

_No, let_ me _do it_ Argentina stepped into his words; she had actually stayed with the group, not taking her pale green eyes away from _her other half_. It was weird having another voice in her head, but there were more important things right now.

"I'm going to have to ask you to remove your hands off of me or I'll slap you," she said.

"A woman slapping me. Hah. Where do you get those funny ideas?" the man chuckled, leaning in and Ariela leaning away, as he lowered his hands once again and grabbed her butt. Ariela really wanted to slap him, but she opted for the most discrete option, and dug her sharp and long nails in the man's neck, enjoying the pain appearing in his expression.

"I want you to know that I have broken a guy's arm for less," she spat through her teeth, as Vonj took her hands out of her and backed away as if she had the plague, the back of his knees hitting something and falling, crashing against something hard and turning around to discover Shiro's eyes dark with anger. Matt was there, growling softly.

"Are you okay, Ariela?" he asked, without taking his eyes away from the lord, and she whispered a yes, grabbing Shiro's arm and pulling him away, towards the spot where the group was waiting for them, with wide angered eyes.

"How dare he?" Sugey squeaked when they were close enough to hear her. "He..., groped you as if you were his wife or something." She sounded so outraged that Ariela would have smiled if she wasn't so busy evening her breath. She was shaking.

"He smelt bad," she said, licking her dry lips.

"What?" Keith asked.

"I don't like him. There's something wrong about him," she said, hugging herself, and then Shiro pulled her against his chest, murmuring that she wouldn't have to ever see him again.

"You are bleeding," Keith said, grabbing her arm and inspecting the small cut there.

"I say we just leave. It's already midnight after all," Pidge butted in. Everything that the rest could see was blank of emotion (her expression, her voice, her body language), but Keith and Ariela could smell the striking sense of fear in her blood. "He is looking at us, and he..." she continued.

Everyone followed Pidge's eyes and found Vonj next to Hogg. The first man was smiling, while the second just looked at Keith with eyes that carried a threat. It was a disturbing image; the two man that they didn't have a good feeling about standing in the middle of the dancefloor, chattering easily without taking their eyes out of them, even when couples waltzed in front of them and blocked the view.

"He looks like a shark," Pidge finished, amazed and terrified. "And not a cute one. He looks like a shark that just smelt blood." Ariela buried her face in Shiro's arm and the man felt a light pain, of the woman biting him slightly.

"Grab the kids and let's get out of here," he said as he looked at Skal's daughters, starting to pull the woman along with him. "Someone get Lance, Allura and Coran."

"Allura and Coran are staying, and I will do the same," Nallely said. "I don't trust this people with them."

"Okay, I'll go get Lance," Hunk said.

"I'll ask the Oracle to open the portal for us," Pidge said, practically sprinting away towards the door of the garden.

# \- - -

Travelling in a portal was like getting swallowed by a wave in Argentinian sea.

His first summer in an Argentinian beach had been hell. Being used to the tranquil and warm water of Cuba, with the ground made of soft sand, he had been taken aback by the freezing water, the raging waves and the raspy sand that had left his knees destroyed.

The waves had caught him out of guard many times, crashing against his back and sides, and it had been as if he was suddenly thrown into the cold and evil washing machine of hell. He rolled, losing air and crashing against the sand, not knowing which way was up and which way was down. Ariela had had to fetch him out of the troubled waters many times, and after the first eight times that that happened, he decided to stay at the shore, watching how the woman enjoyed swimming there, making the waves look like they weren't harmful and avoiding them easily.

To make it short, it felt like being thrown into the cold and evil washing machine from hell, unaware and unprepared.

When he took a shaky step out of the portal he fell forward, Hunk catching him when he fell against his friend's chest, thinking the trip was not worth it, but then the cold was overcome by heat, the ugly rushing sound of the portal turning turned into a band playing beautiful and lively music and people screaming and shouting.

Ariela, who seemed to have come back to life, grasped his arms and dragged him across the crowd.

"THIS IS OUT KIND OF PARTY!" she screamed excitedly, and finally stopped him, in front of what Lance thought would be the best sight of the night. There was a huge fire burning in the middle of a square, people chatting, eating and drinking around it. At the left, there was a group of people with many instruments playing music, and many other either sang or danced.

The houses that surrounded the square were all really high and the streets between them narrow, so the village people had hung many balls made out of glass with..., little galaxies on them? There were red, purples, golds, silvers, burdeos, lilacs... All the mini fragments of universe lighting the streets along with the three little moons in the sky and the candles everyone had set at the sill of their windows. Lance couldn't spot a single window sill without light.

The people cleared the way for them, looking at their daemons with wide and intimidating eyes. Usually, only warriors had them, and when they spotted Hunk with a fucking grizzly bear walking by his side there was no doubt that these people were actually warriors. Of course, the ones that weren't intimidated were the kids who, at the sight of fluffy animals, ran towards the paladins, asking if they could pet the daemons.

This ended up with Aikane calmly carrying seven kids on her back, with Hunk's worried looks and ready arms over them, ready to catch anyone falling down, and the family of those kids hovering over him, praising him and thanking him for the opportunity, curiously asking who he was and where he had come from.

Now, when Ariela stepped in front of the main guitarist with Argentina perched up on her back and shoulders and she asked him if they could join, all instruments stopped and silence fell. The musicians eyed the tiger and then the snow leopard, before making a little bit of room in the circle in which they had sat. Ariela and Lance dropped one next to the other, and looked at everyone, smiling and anxious for them to start playing again, but no one dared to move a muscle.

"You don't have to be afraid of us," Sean said, with her smooth and calming voice, as she rubbed her head against the percussion guy's side.

"Yeah. Not of us and nor of our halves. They are great people. They are going to step up to the Galra," Argentina told them, happily, anxious to start praising, but one of the women singing held her hand out to her, and the leopard met the shaky palm with her snout.

Once everyone agreed that, if their daemons were so friendly, they should be friendly too, the music came back to life. After a few songs, someone passed a guitar to Lance, and after that time went flying.

He hadn't held a guitar ever since he had entered the Garrison. And, despite the long time that had gone by, the instrument felt so right in his hands he couldn't stop the smile growing in his face, wider and wider as he scratched notes out, with his sister immediately recognising the song and starting to sing. Everyone was amazed, by the way those foreign words sounded so beautiful even though they couldn't understand them, and by Ariela's voice. She would later tell him that the way he ran his fingers through the cords so effortlessly was the origin of the amazement, but he wouldn't believe her. In Lance's head, he still sucked at playing the guitar.

It had taken him years of hard work to be able to play one of the easiest songs. And, although at the beginning he started learning because if you didn't play an instrument you weren't a Martínez (later to be McClain), he ended up doing it out of spite. He couldn't remember the melodies, the cords nor the chords, and his fury stopped being directed to himself and started being directed to the instrument itself ("That damned thing won't let me play it"). And now, he was one of the best guitarists in generations of his family, if you listened to his grandfather.

With this, he also discovered that things that had to do with motor were easier for him to remember. The habit.

He was pouring himself into the instrument, blind and deaf to the world around him, just feeling like he was back _at his place_ again. He wasn't conscious of the other musicians following him with their instruments, nor of Keith watching mesmerised from the other side of the circle. Because, man. In the last month, he had discovered that Lance was the lost son of Aphrodite, a great singer _and_ played the guitar as if he had invented it. Who could blame him?

He was so astounded (and a little bit drunk too -alcohol also ran free in the town-) that he almost didn't notice when he started to understand the sexy Spanish flowering out of Lance's and Ariela's lips. And, by the looks of the rest of the musicians, they could understand too. Shiro's hand tightened on his shoulder, and Keith discovered Ariela looking at him with sultry eyes as she and Lance sang.

"... _pero quiero rezar en tu boca la ardiente plegaria que sanga en mis labios_ " (But I want to pray in your mouth the burning plead that bleeds in my lips).

"This is so not fair," the man murmured, burying his face in his hands as Matt laughed loudly.

"How come we can suddenly understand them?" Keith asked him.

_The panther and Blue were finally able to upload their language into all of our translators_ Red answered, and Ara rolled on her back in front of him.

"If he looks up at you while singing this you just have to just get up and kiss his lips to dust," she said, straightening up and watching at Lance intently.

The blue paladin didn't look up until the other half of the song. _Quisiera ser una gota de sal y nacer en tu piel una y mil veces. Quisiera ser un amanecer, para llenarte de mi cada vez que despiertes_. (I'd like to be a drop of salt and born in your skin one and a thousand times. I'd like to be a dawn, to fill you up with me every time you wake up). Blue eyes nailing in Keith's, pupils blown and cheeks rosy.

Keith bit his lip and looked down, taking a deep breath as he counted to ten.

"This is it, Keith. You have to do it," Ara insisted, trying to nudge him forward, but Keith stood up and retreated, away from the music circle and towards the food area, where he found Hunk and Pidge, taking care of Solara and Calupe.

"I can't do it," he said, licking his dry lips.

"Okay, don't panic, Keith," Hunk started, as he threw the little girl in the air and the caught her, earning happy shrieks and laughter. "One of us can take him away from the croud if you want."

"Nah," Pidge said, grabbing a bronze jar. "What he needs is some courage juice," she finished, giving the jar to Keith, the smell of bitter bear filling his nose and making him wrinkle it. Despite that, he gave a little chug, surprisingly enjoying the really cold liquid going down his throat. He hadn't noticed he was burning until that moment.

"I'm not sure. I'm already a little bit drunk... I think," he said, frowning, as he thought.

"You don't realise when you get drunk?" Pidge asked, and he blushed.

"I have never gotten drunk before," was his answer, and his teammate's mouths feel open. "What? I didn't have that much money and there were more important things to spend money on," he defended hismelf, blushing ever harder and lowering his gaze, but Hunk just put a friendly hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay, Keith. We're not judging you. Umm, let me think," he said, shiftinf Solara's weight to his hip.

"What's getting drunk?" the little girl asked.

"Something you shouldn't do," Hunk answered, almost as a reflex. "When you get drunk you usually feel a little bit dizzy, and lightheaded. You are still conscious of your worries and stuff but you don't give a fuck," he told the red paladin, and Keith focused.

"I'm not feeling dizzy. A little lightheaded, yes, but I think that's because another thing," he said, giving Lance a look over his shoulder.

"Then chug, my friend. Chug," Pidge laughed.

# \- - -

He was "a little bit" dizzy by the time he just said fuck it and signalled Lance to get near.

The teen, who had left the guitar behind to get up and dance with Ariela to the drums that the Goridians were playing (making Keith even more lightheaded because, how the fuck could he move like that?), had handed his sister to Shiro and calmly walked towards Keith, rubbing his hands on the thighs of his pants. His suit jacket had disappeared, along with his tie, and he had the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up to the elbows.

"What's up?" he asked, with a little smile.

Instead of answering, Keith grabbed his hand and dragged Lance across the streets, their daemons running behind them and making people jump out of their way. Lance was getting dragged around a lot that day. He was opening his mouth to ask what was up when Keith turned in an alley and stopped there.

There was not a soul, and the little galaxy-balls and candles illuminated everything greatly, so he could perfectly see Keith _wrecked_. He was slightly panting, lips glossy from licking them slightly parted, face flushed, pupils blown and hair a mess, as he quickly ran his hands through it to tie it in an even messier pony tail.

"Why did you bring me here?" Lance asked him, eyes not moving away from Keith's ears, practically stuck to his skull. He was ashamed.

"Remember when we first met? How we used to fight about everything and practically fake-hate each other?" Keith asked, not looking up from his feet. Lance hummed an affirmative. "Do you think we move on from that? Do you like me? Not fake-hate me anymore?"

"Keith, I thought we had already talked about this," Lance said with a smile, and Keith sighed. They had, he was right, but his mind was so foggy that this was the only way he could think of to slightly let his intentions and true feelings slide out of his mouth. 

"Because I really like you," he said, biting his cheeks, and he could hear Lance's heart skip a beat and breathing catch on his throat, before everything went back to normal and he put a hand on his shoulder.

"I really like you too, buddy," he said and Keith groaned.

"No, Lance. Not in the straight way. I'm _gaying_ you. I like you in the gay way," he snapped, his voice raising along with his sight and he nailed his eyes in Lance's.

The blue paladin had the word "surprise" written with red marker in his face; eyebrows raised, eyes wide open, mouth agape. He had even slightly leaned away from Keith, and that set a panicked fire burning through his veins, making him grab Lance's collar and pull him in, trying to go straight for a kiss ("At least let me have one"), but the other teen put his hands on his shoulders and kept the distance between them.

"Keith, I don't want it..." he started, and his lips actually kept moving, but the blood rushing through his ears and the sudden outburst or negative emotions didn't let him listen to the rest of the statement.

He had let himself be lead into a dead end. He had let his hopes fly too high. Now he suddenly understood Shiro's fear of Ariela rejecting him, because if it felt this bad he didn't wish it to anyone (except Zarkon and his allies of course). Everyone had fired him up, telling him that he had a chance, that Lance probably liked him back. And here he was, standing with sliced lamb eyes looking at Lance as he spoke with a soft smile and brushed loose strands of hair out of his face.

"I hate you," Keith said with broken voice, feeling the tears prickling at his eyes and tying a knot in his throat, making the other teen frown. "I hate you so much," he repeated, the first tear falling. He was feeling a mix of sadness and anger that was bound to cause a disaster.

"What? Why? I just said that... FUCK, KEITH!" Lance screamed, as Kieth's fist connected with his face and the blue paladin's lip split open with a bomb of pain exploding. Sean jumped between them, roaring at Keith in a way that would have made him hunch in fear, but he didn't even notice it.

"WHY DID YOU HAVE TO GET CLOSER TO ME IF YOU DIDN'T WANT ME? WASN'T IT OBVIOUS THAT I LIKED YOU?" he shouted, Lance looking at him with wide eyes as he covered the wound with his fingers, already reddening with blood.

"Keith, I don't think you understood what I say," Lance told him, putting a hand on his shoulder, and Kieth slapped it away.

"Go to explain it to Sean or whoever is waiting for you, Lance. You know what? I don't give a fuck," he said, being barely conscious that what he was saying didn't make sense, but at the name of the mysterious guy, Lance's jaw squared and he stopped trying to explain himself. "So I was right," Keith started, giving a step back. "You had someone back on Earth.

Shiro and Ariela were laughing and dancing when they saw Keith running past the fire at an amazing speed, Lance walking lazily towards Hunk, face facing the floor.

"I get Keith, you get Lance?" Ariela asked, and Shiro frowned.

"Shouldn't we do it the other way around?" he asked her.

"I think Keith will snap less at me," was all she said, before squeezing his hand one last time and picked her skirt up to run after Keith. Shiro noticed she was barefoot, shoes abandoned in the place she had been sitting and singing next to her brother a while ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please don't kill me, I know miscommunication is a crap, but Keith is drunk and scared.  
> Well, things will clear up in the next chapter and I will try to have it published by Tuesday/Wednesday. My rhythm of publishing may go downfall from next saturday to two weeks on because I'm going on vacation with my family, so I'll probably won't be able to write (nor watch season two, let me die, pls).  
> Anyway, I hope you liked it. Remember you can always go to my tumblr (http://thenwebohemianq.tumblr.com/) to check out extra content and leave kudos if you liked it, or comment if you have any feedback, thoughts or etc.  
> Kisses, Q.
> 
> P.S: Kudos for Taquito :D


	32. [NOT UPDATED]

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pls don't kill me for taking so long.

Keith only stopped running when his legs failed and he fell face first to the floor, getting a mouthful of earth and grass. Ara's snout was pressing against his nape, rubbing and purring, the second he took too long to get up. He wanted to grab her and pull her close to his chest, but he just laid there, sobbing.

"Fuck," he said, voice choppy from the crying, as he started to get up, resting his weight on his forearms. "Fucking Lance McClain."

_C'mon, Keith. Calm down. I'm sure there was a missunderstanding_ Red told him, sending warm thoughts to his mind, but he immediately shot them down. Ara rubbed her cheek against his and climbed into his lap once he sat down, looking around.

"Where the fuck are we?" he said, sniffing and cleaning the tears away with the sleeve of his shirt. Around him, he could see trees, and to his back, there were more trees. "Oh, great," he said when he realised he was lost. He was angry, heartbroken and lost. Ara cuddled herself up, head hiding in the crook of his neck and Keith hugged her close.

"Sean got really mad that you punched Lance," she told him, and he snorted.

"I bet the original Sean would have gotten mad that I confessed to his boyfriend," he said, and Ara growled.

"KEITH!" a voice called from his back, and he rolled his eyes. There was only one person he wanted to see even less than her. Only Lance. So listening to Ariela's voice almost made him growl too. She had been the one to tell her to confess in the first place. Her reaction had made them sure that he stood a chance. "KEITH, WHAT HAPPENED?"

"GO AWAY, ARIELA!" he yelled back, hating how his voice was still cracked. Next thing he heard Argentina screaming a warning, something breaking and Ariela cursing.

A minute or so later she stumbled into the place where Keith was drowning in regret and self-hatred, panting slightly and collapsing on the ground next to him, Argentina quickly going to cuddle him too, as she put a hand on his knee. He really wanted to back away, but there was something about her worried eyes and the comforting tone on her scent that made him yearn the contact.

"What happened, Keith?" she asked again, and he shrank into himself even more.

"I told him that I liked him and... He leant away and when I tried to kiss him he told me he didn't want to," he said, starting to cry again. "Damn it. I got really angry and I punched him, and then I knew he has a boyfriend," he said, cleaning his tears away, his skin getting wet again almost immediately, and Ariela hugged him, rubbing his back.

"Are you drunk, Keith?" she asked him.

"Yeah." And he started to cry harder.

"How do you know he has a boyfriend? Did he tell you?" she kept inquiring, and Keith shook his head against her chest, sniffing again.

"No. I had heard him say his name in dreams sometimes, and when I brought him up now Lance just froze." Ariela tensed, tightening his arms around him, and when he managed to stop sobbing like a baby he asked: "Do you know someone called Sean?" There were thirty seconds of silence, and then Ariela dropped her head on his shoulder.

"Aw, Keith. No, you got it all wrong," she said, and he noticed her voice was straining too.

"What?" he asked, and Ariela pushed him away from her, to brush the hair away from his face and clean the tears away. Her own eyes were a little bit glossy, pools of black with a ring of gold around. Her pupils had dilated a lot to take in as much light as she could. She could probably see much better than him.

"I didn't tell you this before because Lance would have murdered me, but Lance is like... Totally in love with you. Since before I got here," she told him, smiling softly.

"Did he tell you that?" he asked, eyes wide.

"Yes," she nodded. ("If I told him that Lance actually said the words "I love Keith" he would flip his shit, but it's not me from who he has to hear that"). "Sean was..., one of Lance's best friends. He died when they were eleven," she told him. Keith frowned.

"What happened to him?" he asked. Ariela lowered her eyes, the smile disappearing.

"He jumped from the school's rooftop."

# \- - -

Lance was the human equivalent of the little mermaid, picking broken or useless stuff up from the bottom, giving them a place and treasuring them. Only that the useless stuff was people that thought they were useless.

Like Ariela and Sean.

Ariela arrived at his life when Lance was ten years old, and he befriended her out of spite (thing, he would later notice, that was one of his main motivations in life). She had arrived at the McClain household by her aunt's side. Valeria Torres was, and still is, Alexander McClain's personal assistant, and when she knew her nephew had been kicked out of her house because of her sexuality she had almost resigned to take care of her; she lived with the McClains to make everything easier, and the job of personal assistant didn't have a good schedule to raise a troubled teen. But Alec, being the saint he was and knowing he would die without Valeria's help, told her that Ariela could move in with them to the house, occupying the guest's room and making it her's.

Lance and Flynn had been there when she arrived, having breakfast before going to the yard to play. Ariela was worryingly skinny and pale; she had scratch marks on her neck (Lance would later know she had done that to herself and that she was prone to hurting herself when she felt overwhelmed), really dark circles under her eyes and her slightly curly and really long hair covering her face. She had politely declined Lance's invitation to play and went up to her bedroom to unpack.

Alec had explained to them why she was there, once Valeria had given him permission, and the two kids made it their objective to befriend her. The only difference between them is that Flynn's style was much more discrete and much less forceful. Lance had straight up pushed himself into Ariela's life, invading the girls' space and interrogating her until she finally let everything go. He now partially regretted his tactic, but only partially, because Ariela was a hard nut to crack and she wouldn't have given in any other way.

So, at the beginning, she had hated him. She just wanted to be alone and try to re-build her life over the shaky foundations. Teach herself how to live with this new freedom and acceptance she didn't have before but also live with the knowledge that she was a pariah to her own family, that they had kicked her out of her house without thinking about it twice. And there was this kid, bursting into her room to drag her to watch a movie or tell her to help him study or, or, or...

By the end of the year, Lance was the only one with an unbreakable bond with Ariela. He had dug his way into the pit where she had buried herself with blood and sweat.

The next year, it was Sean's turn to appear. It was the beginning of seventh grade and Lance was keeping up with his discrete reputation at school. He had a few friends, the bullies didn't bother him much unless the usual targets missed school. But that changed when he saw Sean being pushed around by the usual group of bullies. Of course they were doing that, he was the new kid. So Lance stepped in, he got punched and when they were gone he helped Sean get to his feet again.

He managed to sneak from his mother's sight when he arrived, briefly presenting Sean and running upstairs to his room. Then, when Ariela arrived, he called her to his bedroom and told her everything. The girl put some makeup on the bruise and told him to fetch her if someone ever bothered him again. Then she looked at Sean and said "Both of you".

Time went by and Lance and Sean became best friends, with the bullies still on their backs. Ariela and her boyfriend would go looking for them and scare the bullies; at the sight of the two sophomores they would run away, so it wasn't that bad, excepting for the days that Lance and Sean got out earlier than them. Those days they suffered. Sean was a target for an unknown reason and Lance was a target for his latin surname (he would change the Matínez by McClain a year after to stop the bothering) and his really slight Cuban accent. But Lance still managed to hide everything from his mother.

By mid-year, Sean distanced himself a little bit from Lance and the bullying got worse. That was when Lance knew why people bullied him: He was gay. He knew that Sean had a crush on him from one of the bullies' mouth, the guy trying to "disgust him away" from Sean. Just it didn't work. They kept being friends, and when the kid knew Lance didn't care about him being gay, their relationship got as close as it used to be.

Ariela moved the threads around for them. She was the one that talked to the principal about the bullies and even talked to the police that patrolled near the school, telling them that there was a group of kids that used to beat other kids and that she would report them if they didn't do anything. It wasn't enough, though. The bullies would follow Sean home and the beatings got worse after the principal called them to his office.

Then, Sean kissed Lance. They were playing video games in Sean's bedroom and Lance turned around to have his friend press his lips against his. This triggered doubts. Many doubts. And fears. The kiss had been... Good? It felt nice, or at least it didn't feel wrong because Sean was a guy. That meant he was gay too? No, he liked girls. Maybe he was like Ariela, and she always told him that there was nothing wrong with liking whoever you liked, but it still scared him. Because, he was already picked on by different things, but it wasn't as harsh as the stuff people did to Sean. And then there was his family; yes, they had accepted Ariela completely, but one thing was having a friend that was kind of gay and then having a son that was kind of gay.

These troubled thoughts lead to a major shut down. Lance wouldn't come out of his room and wouldn't talk to anyone, as he tried to calm himself down and figure what was going on out.

Lance suddenly disappearing made Sean think that he hated him, that he had fucked up greatly and that he had lost his only friend, best friend and crush all at once. He was alone, and despite Ariela and Eliot (who would play Lafayette in the future) kept walking him home, the bullies managed to find him alone in the breaks and take advantage of Lance's absence.

The shutdown lasted five whole days, and the Friday of that awful week, Sean decided that he just couldn't take it anymore and jumped.

Idania was out shopping for food and the rest was either at work or at school, so Lance was the only one at home and he was the one to pick up the phone, listening to Sean's crying mother on the other end tell him what had happened. He had hung up the phone and just..., kept on with his routine; read, play games and practise the guitar. Like nothing had happened. Ariela and Elliot witnessed Sean's fall, though; they had been looking for him at the exit when a shadow crashed against the pavement. She told Idania about it, not knowing about Lance knowing, and they talked about what would be the best way to let the kid know what had happened.

Everyone was watching the news in the living room that night when Sean's face appeared on the screen. Everyone recognised him, and when the footage of the body being carried to the ambulance it downed Lance that yes, Sean had actually died.

# \- - -

"There was no way of getting him to stop crying," Ariela finished, cleaning the tears away with dirt-stained fingers. "It was like a nightmare."

Keith was nailed to the spot, unable to move. He wanted to throw up, and he was totally sure that alcohol had really little to do with it. The story that Ariela had just told him was slowly letting him understand many things. And then the realisation of how big he had fucked up: he had confessed, not listened to Lance say whatever he had said, misinterpreted it, punched him, screwed up his on confession and ran away, after making his crush remember his childhood best friend, who had killed himself.

"Oh, my God," he said, burying his face in his hands, listening to Ariela sniff. "I punched Lance and then brought Sean up, I must be the person he hates the most in this world." Ariela put a hand on his back, rubbing gently.

"Don't worry. I'm sure he is just sulking somewhere with Hunk and being confused. When you explain what happened he will understand and everything will just smoothly roll by," she said, before straight up hugging him, Keith immediately untangling himself to curl up with her, sighing at the warmth and the home-like scent. "We should get going before they start to worry about us."

"No," he protested, tightening his arms around her waist. "I want to stay here. I'm drunk and alcohol makes me fuck up."

"You don't have to talk to Lance right now if you don't want to," she told him, caressing his hair.

"If you make me move I will cry really hard. No."

Ariela sighed.

"Okay. Tell me whenever you are ready."

# \- - -

They fell asleep before Keith was ready. And, as Argentina and Ara thought that sleeping in the middle of the forest was something perfectly normal, they didn't wake them up.

It had already dawned when the search party found them. The team was starting to get worried after an hour went by and they didn't come back. Shiro, Pidge and Sugey grabbed a few of the galaxy-balls to use as lanterns and went in the direction Shiro had last seen Ariela running towards. They found the four of them curled up in the middle of a forest near the town. Well, Matt found them, smelling them from afar.

Shiro had to carry Keith back because he had a really strong headache and no will to live. Ariela followed suit behind them, clinging to Shiro's shirt and walking without actually looking. No one knows how she made it back to the castle without spraining her ankle or something.

Keith woke up with a desertification on his mouth, his stomach eating itself and an uncomfortable ache settled in his back and neck. He saw Ara sleeping next to him, purring lowly. Skal was sitting in a chair, chatting quietly with her daughters, and her head shot up the second Keith groaned and turned in the bed, rubbing his face.

"How are you feeling?" she asked as she got up, Calupe crawling quickly towards the bed and trying to climb up, whispering "Kif" over and over again, smiling when he sat down and picked her up.

"Horrible," he answered, as Calupe hugged him.

"Do you want me to bring you breakfast?" Skal asked, but she was already at the door, knowing what was the answer.

"Yes please," Keith said, with a weak smile, and the woman returned it, telling her daughters to follow her with a gesture of her hand, but Solara shook her head.

"I want to stay with Keith!" she protested, crossing her arms over her chest.

"KIF!" Calupe screamed, smiling when she recognised the name, and hugging the paladin again.

"But Keith wants to rest, honey," Skal told her.

"Don't worry, Skal. They can stay," he told the woman. She worried her lip, taking a second to decide if she should insist or just let them with him.

"Behave," she told Solara, before disappearing behind the door, and the little girl was almost immediately sitting by his side and looking at him with wide and curious eyes.

"Why did you ran away last night? Lance said something that I didn't understand. He likes you, did you know? He was really sad because you said that you hated him." It was like a machine gun, digging bullets in him as he recalled what had happened last night once again, this time with his head clear.

"I like him too, I don't hate him. But last night... I was dumb. I drank stuff that makes you dumb," he started, catching Calupe when she almost fell, still looking at Solara. "And I thought he didn't like me, and because I was dumb I punched Lance. That's why I ran away," he explained to the little girl.

"Ans," Calupe echoed, aiming for Keith's ears.

"You have to tell him. You have to tell him that you like him too!" Solara exclaimed, grabbing his arm and shaking it.

"It's not that easy. Have you ever liked someone?" he asked her, and the girl stood up in front of him, chin up and arms over her chest again.

"It _is_ easy. I have a boyfriend, sir," she told him, and Keith's eyebrows shot up.

"You do?"

"Aha. His name's Drime, and he treats me really well. He lets me dress up in his clothes and play the to the prince and the royal guard," she said, and Keith's surprise grew.

"And who are you?" he asked him.

"I'm the prince. Alase, prince of Velime. I really like the name Alase. Do you know what it means?" she asked, and before he could answer she was already speaking again. "It means bright deity. It's beautiful. I wish that was my name."

"So, you like dressing like a boy?" Keith asked, and Solara sighed.

"I wish I was a boy."

"Why?" The girl started to fidget.

"Well, if I was a boy, people would let me be a boy. You know, cut my hair short, wear boy's clothes, learn how to fight..." she answered. "My dad doesn't like me wanting to be a boy, so I usually don't talk about it. That's why I like Drime so much! He lets me be a boy when I'm a girl!"

_Oh_.

"Oh," Keith said. "You know? On my planet it's pretty normal for some people to be born a girl and want to be a boy," he told her, and Solara's eyes lit up. "Yeah, it's called transgender. It's when you are born with one gender but you..., um..., like being another gender. Do you understand?" Solara nodded eagerly.

"So I can be a boy!" she exclaimed.

"Well, you are able, but... There are people that don't understand it, so they try to stop people like you," he told her, and the girl lowered her gaze, giving him a perfect sight of the red freckles dusting her nose and cheeks.

"Different scares. That's what my mommy always tells me," she murmured, but then her head shot to the door. "Shush. Someone's coming," and she stood up to run away to the chair she had been sitting on, just in time to see Skal opening the door of the bedroom with a tray on her hands.

# \- - -

The next half an hour was a mess. Keith asked where Lance was, and Coran told him that he was at the planetary, on the Castle. He was clearing his mind for the meeting, that would be in a few hours. Allura was still sleeping, resting from the ball.

Keith then walked out of the castle to find Lance, wearing a shivering coat of determination, and Coran went to fetch every member of the crew that was awake and made them run to the Castle too, entering the control deck and setting up the cameras of the planetary and turning to everyone, who were looking at him with confused eyes.

"What are we doing here, Coran?" Shiro asked, rubbing his face tiredly.

"Last night, Keith tried to confess to Lance. We left them alone, and it all went to shit," the royal adviser started, pacing solemnly. "So now we are going to monitor everything and make sure that they don't screw up again."

The paladins and Sugey exchanged weirded out looks. Nallely would have blurted out something that represented with a high accuracy the feelings they all had, but she wasn't there. No one had been able to find her.

"What?" Pidge finally asked.

"Yeah! We will set the mood, control everything, and if we see that things are going to shit again, we send someone to intervene!" Alfor, the owl that was calmly standing on the man's shoulder, said, surprising everyone. He had never spoken before.

"Because I am dead tired of this two not being together. It's making me sick!" Coran added.

"He's got a point!" Ariela said, pouting slightly and looking at Shiro for approval. The man felt an inquiring poking in his mind, both from Black and Matt, but he let it slide.

"I don't know..." he said, rubbing his chin. "This moment should be something private. We shouldn't sneak our noses in," he finished, shrugging.

"Yeah, Shiro. You're totally right. But consider this," Hunk told him, putting a hand on the man's shoulder and making a gesture towards the window. "No more sexual tension."

"Plus, we get to orchestrate this, so we could end up making it perfect!" Ariela exclaimed. She widened the screen that showed Lance resting his back against a wall, watching a tiny version of the Milky Way. Argentina was already running around, talking about how happy the two paladins would be once this was over with.

"I don't mean to throw your plans to the ground. I mean, they are dumb, yes, but they are not _that_ stupid. They'll notice someone is doing something," Pidge said.

"They won't care!" Sugey chimed in.

"Shush everyone! Keith's went into the planetarium!" Ariela screamed, and they all sprinted towards the screen, and Coran activated the audio.

 

Keith's palms were already sweating even before he walked into the planetary, with Ara waiting by the door. She would step away this time. He had been practising what he would say for like thirty minutes, and now that he saw Lance sitting there, all the words he had repeated drifted off of his mind like fog.

The planetary was a wide and round space, with dark blue walls and black roof. You could manipulate the projections to your will, the size and the colour, everything. So Lance was against a wall, curled up on himself, holding a tiny version of a galaxy on his hands. Sean was sitting by his side, and although she had been totally relaxed seconds ago, the moment she saw Keith she sat stiffly, trying to look as threatening as she could. _I dare you to hurt him again_. Keith took in a deep breath and started to walk towards Lance, but he stopped in the middle of the room, next to a few benches. Lance had totally noticed his presence, but he didn't lift his eyes from the projection.

"I'm sorry," he said, and he got even more nervous when Lance continued to avoid him. "Last night... I wanted to confess. I was a coward, so I got drunk thinking that it would help me. And I made..., so many mistakes!" He took a deep breath. "I don't hate you. I like you a lot. I'm probably in love with you, but I just can't admit it to myself. I've been ever since that time the Galra tried to take the Castle. It's just that... I confessed and you didn't react, and I thought that if you liked me back you would jump right in like you do with the other people you like. You don't hesitate before starting to flirt you just..., do it," he finished. Both his voice and hands were trembling, and he was about to cry. Lance wasn't looking at him. Even with his head leant downsides he could see the split in his lip.

"You never listen," he said, as he started to stand up. Did the lights dim or Keith started to lack blood in his eyes or something?

Lance walked towards him, still looking downsides, and when he was a few feet away, he finally looked up. There was a foreign glimmer in his eyes, and Keith was splitting his head open trying to interpret it. And then he opened his mouth.

"You are like a picture frame," he said, and the smiled, savouring the confusion on Keith's face. "Because I want to nail you to a wall."

("Oh, thank God," Shiro sighed. "I thought he was going to say he wanted to hang him.")

"What?" Keith questioned in a puzzled whisper. Lance's smile let the cheesiness behind and became something beyond all sincerity.

"When you tried to kiss me I said "I don't want it to be like this". I guess you didn't hear the whole thing," he started, fidgeting with his shirt. "I am really romantic when I'm in love and Keith... I've fancied guys for a long time but you've been the first I ever fell for." And then the place bursted in light.

A new projection of the universe appeared, on full colour and taking the whole space of the planetary. Lance's face was white with star shine, and Keith's even more purple because of a big planet that was bathing him with its magenta light. Lance blinked, starting to suspect again. First, the lights dimming and now this. 

_Ariela, you're so dead_ he thought, as he took a sharp breath and decided to carry on. Besides, the look of utter surprise and amazement in Keith's face, being bathed with soft light was worth his sister sneaking in.

"I didn't want our first kiss to be with you drunk. I wanted it to be something special." He nodded, biting his lip. "But if you want me to treat you like the rest, there you go. That's my worst pick up line in English, fully dedicated to you."

"So you do like me?" Keith asked, and Lance had never seen him so vulnerable.

"I just told you I was in love with you, Kogane," he said, stepping in closer.

"Shut up, McClain," Keith responded, blushing but smiling.

"Actually, it's Martínez. I changed it when I was twelve," he informed Keith, as he slowly settled his hands on his waist, making him take a sudden breath, the warmth of Lance's hands passing through the material of his shirt and making his heart beat even faster.

A little melody started playing and then:

_Fire and ice. This love is like fire and ice. This love is like rain and blue skies. This love is like the sun on the rise_.

Lance bit his lip and rolled his eyes, watching as Keith frowned and looked everywhere around them, confused. He just let his forehead drop on his shoulder and chuckled, loving how Keith's muscles tensed and then relaxed, as he put his own hands on his back.

"They have to be kidding me," Lance muttered, before lifting his head again, and the pieces clicked inside Keith's mind.

"Well," he started, smiling softly. "You said you wanted it to be special, didn't you?" he asked.

_And just like that; all I breathe, all I feel. You are all for me. I'm in. And just like that; all I breathe, all I feel. You are all for me. No one can lift me, catch me the way that you do. I'm still falling for you_

Keith never imagined that he would ever drag the moment if he got to kiss Lance, but the second the teen started to sway from side to side, inviting him to slow dance to the song, he jumped right in, sliding his arms through his shoulders. It was funny, none of them dared to look the other in the eye so they just dedicated themselves to watch the constellations and comets spinning slowly around them as they listened to the song.

_It took us a while, 'couse we were young and unsure_.

"Damn straight, Ellie," Lance chuckled, before leaning closer. "Or should I say: Damn gay?" Keith threw his head back, laughing loudly, before straightening up again and saying:

"Just shut up and kiss me."

 

Everyone went nuts. It was like that time when Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar. They all had their eyes stuck to the screen, listening to the music and the muffled voices, and then Lance's lips were on Kieth's, the red paladin's arms tightening around the other's neck as Lance quickly sneaked his hands up to tangle one in Keith's hair and to slightly push Keith forward by the nape with the other.

There were jumps, screams (and churchbells ringing), chants and high-fives, and even one really loud roar from Aikane.

"WE DID IT!" Ariela screamed, as she hugged Hunk and jumped excitedly, with the boy imitating her, but then the bear stood up and rested her feet on his shoulders and they were not able to move anymore.

"We? Didn't they do it?" Shiro asked, and Pidge snorted.

"Please, Shiro. If it weren't for us they'll still be looking at each other with pinning eyes across the room," she said, and Coran appeared in the middle of them, smiling excitedly.

"Do you want to know the best part?" he asked, and all eyes were on him. "I recorded it."

Shiro had only seen four more people looking so proud in their lives. Coran looked like he was the first man to walk on the moon as Ariela high-fived him _hard_ , the slapping sound making everyone think it was painful.

"Now we have to go and wake Allura up to tell her the good news!" he said, looking at the owl resting on his shoulder with a content expression, and with that, they were gone.

Once they calmed down, their eyes drifted towards the screen again. Lance and Keith were just like when they had left them, kissing pasionately and holding each other. It was one long kiss for a first one.

"Should we go up and congratulate them or...?" Hunk started.

"Yeah, let's go and tease them!" Pidge screamed, before running towards the door, Shiro surprising for the fifth time in twenty-four hours when he noticed a red thing tangled in Pidge's neck, just to remember it was her daemon, Jeanne.

# \- - -

Allura was laying on her bed, curtains drawn and lights off, sighing softly and closing her eyes. Her head was spinning, and Coran suddenly bursting into her room screaming didn't help. It didn't help one bit.

"Coran, calm down and then tell me what happened!" she told the man, who finally shut up and took a deep breath. Her voice had sounded a few octaves higher, but she couldn't help it. The panic had filtered in it.

"KEITH AND LANCE KISSED! THEY'RE TOGETHER!" he yelled. He then jumped happily three times, clapped his hands, screeched and left the room, closing the door after himself with a loud bang. It was like those storms that start out of nowhere, wet everything and make you think you'll die drowned just to stop after two minutes.

Allura's head dropped in the pillow as relief washed over her, and Nallely's head popped up from under the covers.

"Do you think he noticed I was in here?" she asked, looking up to Allura with wide and shiny lilac eyes, making her smile, before leaning down and kissing her. It was addicting. Ever since she had kissed her for the first time, thinking when would be the next kiss was always a thought running around in her mind.

"I don't think so. He was too excited to pay attention to the extra bulge on my bed," she said, laughing.

"Good, because I'm totally sure that he would kill me if he knew I touched you," Nallely sighed, resting her head on top of Allura's chest. "So... Should I carry on?" she asked, with a cheesy smile.

"Nah, the scare ushered the mood," she said, and Nallely groaned.

"Agh, fun spoilers."

# \- - -

They kissed for like... Hours. Keith didn't want to let go; it was just like when they started to cuddle. He had always wanted to have that "close friends" that Ariela and Hunk had with Lance, where they could just go and _touch_ him (hug, hold hands, use as a pillow or just brush their arms or legs together without it being awkward). And now that he could touch and kiss him, he didn't plan to waste one damn second. Everytime that Lance broke away, Keith would follow his mouth blindly, tightening his arms around Lance's neck.

They ended up in one of the benches, Lance sitting down and Keith on his lap. When they finally broke apart, Keith couldn't feel his lips and his chin was a little bit wet with drool. A song (that he later remembered was one of the openings to Naruto, anime Shiro made him watch everytime they had the chance) was still playing from the Castle's speakers and Lance was looking at him in a way that made his heart skip a beat. And then...

"No homo, right?" he asked, and Keith frowned, tilting his head, only to feel a hand grabbing his ass. "Syke!"

"I can't believe I'm in love with you," he laughed, dropping his head against Lance's chest and he dropped a kiss on his head, still laughing.

"I'm sorry. I needed to tell a joke or I would burst. That's how I deal with being too emotional," he said, lowering his face so that he could meet Keith's eyes. "I guess that you should know it, now that we're boyfriends."

"What? Boyfriends?" Keith asked, and Lance frowned.

"Well, yeah. I thought you wanted to, after confessing and making out with me," Lance muttered looking at his right to avoid Keith's big purple eyes. He was just too cute.

"No, no. Of course I want to," he said, cupping Lance's face in his hands. "It's just that... After so many months of pinning, hearing you say it like that is like... You know the feeling when you are in one of the last levels of the video game? And there should be a boss battle but there isn't?" he asked, and Lance _ahhed_ in understanding. And then he snorted, laughing awfully. "What's that?"

"I just thought of a joke," he answered, and Keith's eyebrows shot up.

"Then tell it."

"No. You will hit me if I do," Lance shook his head, before planting a chaste kiss on Keith's lips. Then Sean's head appeared in the middle of them, looking at Lance with wide blue eyes that looked too pure to be part of this cruel world.

"If you ever mistreat me I'll tell Keith the joke you just thought of," she threatened, and Keith looked at her with apologetic eyes. He could remember the tiger baring her teeth and roaring after he hit Lance.

"You wouldn't!" the blue paladin gasped, and Keith grabbed his bottom lip between his thumb and index fingers, looking at the split.

"Does it hurt?" he asked him, and Lance's eyes travelled to him.

"Don't worry," was all he said, which meant that yes, it hurt. Ara climbed up on the bench and stood up, pressing her front paws on Lance's right arm, making him look at her.

"Keith is really sorry about that. He thought that you didn't want him to kiss you because you didn't like him and got really mad," she told Lance, before turning to Keith. "You can't drink that _stupidising_ thing anymore. I forbid it."

"Don't worry, Ara. I won't," Keith smiled, resting his head on Lance's shoulder again. "I'd like to stay like this forever," he murmured, and Lance kissed his exposed cheek.

"First we destroy Zarkon's legion of horror, and then we'll cuddle all day, every day. Deal?" Keith hummed in content.

"Deal."

"LOOK AT THEM!" a voice screamed, and they both looked at the door, to find Shiro, Hunk, Pidge, Ariela and Sugey watching them with shining eyes. "They are having a bonding moment! Lance is cradling him in his arms!" said Pidge and the three paladins that had lived the moment bursted in tears, while Ariela and Sugey just stood there, wondering...

"My new brother-in-law! Yaay!" Ariela sing-sang, as she got closer and hugged Keith so tightly it kind of hurt. "I think I already love you more than Lance," she added, earning a narrowed-eye look from her brother. "Did you like the song I picked for your first kiss?" she asked, rubbing her cheek with Keith's.

"It was surprisingly accurate," Lance replied, chuckling softly. Then Shiro appeared and patted him _hard_ on the back, smiling at him in the way that screamed: "I will murder you in your sleep".

"We have to talk later," the black paladin told him, and Lance gulped. What were his chances of escaping an anger-driven Shiro? Pretty low, but if he had Ariela those chances boosted up, although now she could easily take Shiro's and Keith's side if something ever went wrong. He had to walk on his tiptoes.

"I can't believe you are finally together, man!" Hunk exclaimed, also patting Lance in the back.

"Congratulations," a hissing voice told them, and Keith turned to meet Jeanne face to face. There was something about the snake that was horrifyingly beautiful, and having her so close it only reminded him that she could kill people with one bite, despite looking so cute and helpless.

She was just like Pidge.

_Now that you finally have him I will allow you to have sex in the cockpit!_ Red exclaimed in Kieth's mind, and everyone started to wonder why he had suddenly turned so red.

_I won't do that!_ he snarled back.

_Oh, c'mon. It was practically made for it! Listen, it even has the word "cock" in its name! If that is not a signal then I don't know what is_.

"I can't believe her," he sighed, and Lance laughed.

"Red is talking to you?" he asked. Keith nodded. "Yeah. Blue is really excited about us too, you know?".

"Listen, guys. I'm like..., so happy for you, but Lance needs to prepare for the meeting. It'll last several hours today, so you probably should get to sleep," Pidge told them, and Lance looked at Keith.

"Want to cuddle?" he asked with a sheepish smile, and Keith nodded. Lance straight up picked him up and stood up, making Keith yelp and cling onto him for dear life.

"If anyone needs us, we'll be in my bedroom!" he announced, and Keith buried his purple face on the crook of his neck when he saw Shiro's face get red too and opened his mouth to scream.

"No! If you want to cuddle you can cuddle in the common room!" he said, and all the eyes turned to him, eyebrows up in disbelief and Ariela chuckled.

"Shiro, you are not in a position to ask that from us," Keith told him, and then it was Lance the one to get red. "You shouldn't be able to be alone in a room with Ariela either."

"He's got a point, Shiro," Ariela sing sang, before starting to walk away.

"Where are you going? You're not going to back me up?" Shiro asked her, watching as she left. She was wearing another gipsy skirt, red this time, and a white top. 

"We need to talk to Desa about something," was all Argentina said, as Ariela didn't even turn around to wave her hand, before leaving definitely.

"Well, if no one is still going to bother us, we will be going too," Lance announced, gently shifting Keith's weight and walking away towards his bedroom, with Keith waving cheesily at Shiro as he stuck his tongue out at him.

# \- - -

"Oh, thank God I found you!" Allura exclaimed the second Ariela stepped inside the library. She was standing in front of a table that was currently covered with many papers, which Desa was scrambling through, as she spoke fast Goridian with who Ariela thought was the leader of the Velimian army.

"What is it?" Ariela asked, Argentina quickly running towards the table and jumping on it, to start reading the papers.

"One of our allies just called. The Galra are having their first riot ever," the princess told Ariela once she got close enough to see. _Yeah, I don't understand crap_ she thought to herself, eyeing the papers and trying to look interested.

"They had never had a riot before? The size of an organisation is generally an invitation to inner fight," she observed, gaining a smile from Desa, who didn't stop talking. Argentina hid her head behind her arm.

_I have a bad feeling about this_ she whispered quietly in her mind, and Ariela caressed her head.

"The thing about Galra is that they are scary and evil. The first thing they do when they get a prisoner is make sure they rip all of the hope and will to fight for them. Prisoners are usually lifeless puppets," Allura explained. "But..."

"There's a solar system we thought had been completely destroyed. Yaytera, one of the planets we thought didn't exist anymore, is currently a Galra base. The prisoners that were being kept there started a riot, we don't know how but they managed to surface from their cells and are trying to take over the Galran ships to escape," Desa explained.

"You want us to go there and help them?" Ariela asked, and Allura blushed. A knot formed itself on Ariela's throat when she decided that it was a shameful blush; Allura was already regretting what she would say.

"No. It is too dangerous. I want you to go with Pidge in the Green lion and take a close look. See who is leading the riot, if there are any Galran soldiers fighting by their side, if they have weapons. I want you to get as much information as you can," she answered. "If this means that the Galra have traitors in their system we need to know."

"Okay. I'll go get Pidge. We get changed and go," Ariela nodded, but Allura shook her head.

"It won't be necessary. You'll just be in the Green lion. No landing, no fighting."

# \- - -

"I insist. Why the fuck are you here? This was supposed to be a girls mission!" Pidge complained for the eleventh time, and Keith rolled his eyes, still playing with his knife. He carried that damned thing everywhere, and it only made Ariela like him more. "Shouldn't you be making out with Lance?" 

Keith only answered with a groan.

Lance and Keith had never made it to Lance's room because the girl had been following them and taunting extremely. So, when Ariela found Pidge she found them too, and when she explained what she and Pidge had to do, Keith's eyes glimmered at the opportunity of a mission. It had been cute how he had looked at Lance, like asking him for permission, only to have his new boyfriend place a kiss on his temple and tell him to be careful.

Just like Allura had said, none of them had changed into their suit. Pidge was in her shorts and big t-shirt and Keith in his jeans and black t-shirt. Of course, it was not as bad as wearing a fucking skirt and a top and walking barefoot, but if they had to just sit back and watch, there wouldn't be much of a problem with that.

"Dude," Pidge said, looking at the planet before their eyes. "That's fucking Mars."

The words made Ariela stand up from where she had been sitting on the floor and look at the screen before her eyes, immediately agreeing with Pidge. It wasn't Mars, it was Yaytera, but they were almost identical. Wide, red and sandy. If it weren't for the Galran installations, Ariela would have thought that they were back at their solar system.

With an easy tap of her fingers, Pidge activated stealth mode and neared the planet, even more, entering its atmosphere and slowly descending to hover over the place where the riot was taking place. In the middle of the sandy-red ground, there was a huge pit that seemed to have no end; stairs could be seen at the sides, and aliens in Galran prisoner uniforms were running to the top of them quickly, the ones that had already arrived trying to push the sentinels back to finally break free.

"Allura said that they were trying to get to the Galran ships and use them to escape. Does that mean that the Galra are somewhere else?" Ariela asked, leaning forward, and Keith shook his head.

"I don't think they are far. The most probable thing is that they might be having a meeting or something somewhere near and they're just underestimating the rioters," he answered but Pidge looked at him with wide eyes.

"If it is what you say it is, that means the prisoners somehow new about the meeting schedule and that all Galra had to assist. Someone must have informed them!" she exclaimed, but Keith wrinkled his nose.

"Maybe they heard it from one of the guards, back at the cells," he said, his fingers tapping quickly and harshly against the control panel catching Ariela's attention. She knew he wanted to dive right in and help them out of there, but Allura had told them specifically not to get in the middle.

"They don't have high-tech weapons, mostly cold steel they could have made themselves. And there're no Galras fighting with them," he observed after a few seconds of silence, leaning closer to the screen.

"But look; there are androids from the side of the rioters. Do you think they could have hacked them?" Ariela asked, looking back at Pidge who was still sitting on her pilot chair.

"I don't think so. With Altean technology, it took Hunk and I a few minutes to hack into one of those, but it was Hunk and me with Altean technology. Even if there was someone that matched our brain, they would still need access to technology or good based knowledge of the sentinels building," the girl explained, but then Keith pointed at a flag one of the rioters was waving.

"Isn't that the Star Trek logo?" he asked, and Ariela looked at the flag.

"It is the Star Trek logo," she nodded. "Could it be another threading snap? Star Trek actually does exist and we just think it's a show?"

"A threading what?" Keith questioned, but Ariela shrugged him off.

"I'll explain it later. Pidge, what do you think?" she asked, bu instead of getting an actual answer, Pidge slammed the planks forward and sent the green lion flying towards the ground, roughly landing and sending Ariela and Keith smashing against the walls and floor.

"PIDGE, WHAT THE FUCK?" Keith screamed, as the girl quickly got up from her seat and ran towards the now open cockpit door, with Ara trying to catch her by the clothes. "What does she think she's... _Oh_ ," he said, as he got up.

"Why did she do that?" Ariela asked as she rubbed the place where her side had been nailed against the edge of a control panel, but Keith smashed her own bayard against her hand and pulled her to running in the same direction that Pidge had gone.

"Her family is in there. Matt Holt. He is the one waving the flag," Keith explained quickly. "We need to get him out of there before he gets killed," he added, but Ariela shook her arm out of his grip.

"Allura told us to stay out of it. We don't have the suits, the propellers or the shields. We are getting Pidge out of there and going back!" she screamed at him, over the noise of the brawl. It was getting stronger every stride they took.

"It's her brother!" Keith complained.

"It is dangerous, Keith. That's what it is!" she answered, just in time for them to finally come out to Yaytera's environment, that made them stop dead in their tracks and almost immediately start panting.

It was ridiculously hot, the air heavy and humid making it hard to breathe, even though they were under Green's shade. The sand under Ariela's feet was burning, and she was already starting to sweat, making her skin feeling even more clammy because of the humidity in the air. The smell of fear and anger wasn't helping her to focus and shrugged off the sensations that suddenly overcame her.

"This place stinks," Keith muttered, covering his nose with his sleeve, before starting to run again.

She was crashing against rioters and sentinels, both trying to attack her or just protecting the rioters from the Galra, but the parts of her body that were aching because of the hits went unnoticed for her. The only thing that was on Pidges mind in that moment was finding Matt again.

Her heart had stopped when the somewhat _unfamiliar_ face had appeared in front of her. The first thing she had thought was "I didn't know they had more human prisoners" because that couldn't possibly be her brother. Long hair tied in a bun, the angles of his face sharper, the circles under his eyes darker than ever and his skin super pale. He looked taller too, and maybe broader, but it had been the angered spark in his eyes that had confused her.

"Maybe we should go back, Pidge. This is too dangerous," Jeanne whispered against her ear right after a huge brown mass bumped them both against the ground.

"PIDGE!" another voice screamed. Unfortunately, it wasn't Matt's. "WE HAVE TO GO. THE GALRA KNOW WE'RE HERE!" Ariela continued to scream. As Pidge got up he was able to identify a red skirt twirling between the people running, Ariela's bare feet disappearing when she jumped to avoid being shot at the legs.

"I AM NOT GOING BACK WITHOUT MY BROTHER!" she screamed back, answering both Ariela's and Jeanne's words, before finally getting back to her feet to keep shouting her brother's name and searching for him in the constantly moving crowd.

"Damn it," Ariela muttered through gritted teeth when she heard Pidge's response.

Her head had never spun faster than that exact moment. She was suddenly exhausted, as if the heavy and hot air sucked in her vital energy like a sponge, it was hard to distinguish the androids that were helping the rebels from the ones that wanted to kill her, and the very same rebels pushing her around and not helping with the two luckily unarmed droids were fighting her like it was personal.

"I can't help much!" Argentina exclaimed. It was true; apart from bumping the dorids to the ground or distracting her, she couldn't do much. Her instinct of capturing and bleeding out the prey to death didn't work so well with robots that didn't have blood.

"Go find Keith. He'll help me drag Pidge's ass back to the lion," Ariela answered, cutting through a metal neck with her right sword, suddenly forgetting to breathe because of the effort it took her.

She wasn't able she'd make it by the time she felt Argentinas voice in the back of her mind. _Keith needs our help_. It was as if she was tied with a rope to the paladin, and he started pulling her in, Ariela's tired legs getting up and starting to run in the direction she felt was right, suddenly feeling a string of someone else's panic surging in her mind.

When she saw Keith she understood why.

Actual Galra soldiers were trying to drag him to one of the ships, where Matt Holt was already being cuffed. Keith was putting up a fight, slashing the air with his sword, but it wasn't so much an attack as it was to keep them away. He looked like he was trying to shush wolves away from him with a stick on fire. One of the four was holding Ara, the cat scratching and squirming to try to get out of the soldier's grip.

"SHUT UP!" he screamed, and then the woman picked up on his expression, contorted in childish fear.

"WHAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU'RE DIFFERENT, _PALADIN_?" one of the soldiers asked, mocking Keith's title, as he neared him with some weird sword. 

Keith wanted to scream, fight back, kick, but he didn't have the energy. He felt tired, confused, and emotionally weak. He wanted to drop to his knees and cover his ears, give in to the raged sea that his mind was in that moment.

But then he smelt it.

A pungent smell that suddenly stilled his waters and made his mind focus on one thing and one thing only: Run. Escape. It seemed to affect the Galra soldiers too; their breathings became heavier and their eyes started to go from on place to the other, searching. Looking for the threat.

The threat arrived quickly, putting herself in front of Keith and slashing a Galran chest with her sword.

Relief washed over Keith's body when he recognised Ariela, knowing that the angered threat was trying to protect him making him feel somewhat safe, but he was still worried. He could distinguish Ariela's scent glands on her neck, already starting to swell, and when he caught the woman's eyes he discovered that the white that should be around her irises was black.

"Who the fuck are you?" one of the Galran soldiers asked in a growl, as he stopped Ariela's blade with his own, only to come face to face with the woman, that was matching his growl and adding the show of her sharp canines.

" _Don't touch him_ ," was the only thing she said, words slurred and heavy on her mouth. Suddenly, speaking was really hard, her mind pouring all of her focus on protecting Keith. She could only identify her own anger. 

Someone was going to attack her but she dug her left sword on the Galran soldier chest, making the other three stop dead in their tracks as the saw their mate fall to the ground on his knees, eyes wide open and blood coming out of his mouth like a cascade.

"Next?" Ariela asked turning around to face a smaller Galra and slash his uniform open before attacking again. The soldier barely managed to block it and run towards the ship.

"Leave them alone! It's not worth it!" he screamed, and the other two that were left seemed to accept it immediately and run after him, looking at Ariela in sheer horror.

She just stood there, watching them flee and enjoying how the ship flew away almost immediately. Ariela could feel Argentina pawing at her waist just when the Galra were already leaving the atmosphere. The leopard was worried, very.

"Mine, please stop that. You are scaring me," she said, and Ariela frowned still struggling to breathe. She turned to look at Keith, who was sitting on the ground, hugging Ara, and then realisation hit her.

The only person besides them in the surface was Pidge, who was running her teammates with the worry making her heart beat on her throat. Many of the towers showed signs of having been blown up by a bomb, and all of the other Galran ships were gone.

"What happened?" she gasped, as she dropped to the floor and crawled towards Keith. Ara immediately went to nuzzle her neck, to rub them together, and Keith seemed to want to imitate her, but he held back.

"You were... Out. It was as if you weren't yourself. Your eyes were kind of black and you smelt... You scared me," he murmured, curling up on himself and rubbing his cheeks against his knee. "After they ran away you zoned out," he finished.

# \- - -

Everyone back at Goridion felt uneasy, but the three paladins were struggling with it the most. If Lance didn't have the meeting to worry himself with, he would probably be running around and bugging someone to take some of the edges off to his nerves.

But Hunk and Shiro... Nallely couldn't believe what she was seeing.

They were rarely seen together, only the stars know why, but not only they were together: they were practically sitting on the other's lap, both fidgeting and Hunk even laying his head to rest on Shiro's shoulder. They had suddenly starte craving being together, feeling even worse if they were appart. It was weird and sudden, but the relief that came with finding the other paladin and being close to him muffled the questions in their minds.

"What is going on?" Sugey asked her sister in a whisper, who answered with a shrug.

"I don't have the slightest idea," she answered, and then the door of the living room where they were sitting opened, allowing them to see the three paladins that had gone on a mission completely disheveled and exhausted.

Hunk practically rocketed from the sofa and ran towards them, somehow managing to hug them all at once, surprising Nallely. Then the three paladins hugged him back and it surprised her even more. She felt a strange urge to go to them too, but it was quite easy to quiet like she did to all the things that slithered inside her and she didn't know.

"We were really worried," Shiro said once he was able to grab Keith by the arms and inspect him, discovering a few bruises and small cuts. "What happened?" This time he looked at Ariela, but Pidge was the one to answer.

"My brother was there. I couldn't take him out," she said, lowering her gaze, and Hunk hugged her once more.

"They tried to take Keith," Ariela commented and she looks like a toddler about to cry, as she grabbed the aforementioned and hugged him tightly, _nuzzling his neck as Keith imitated her_ , Shiro just staring at them wide eyed.

"Oh, yeah. They've been like that since we were safe," Pidge said, voice muffled by Hunk's hug.

Keith wanted to explain why, but he couldn't find the words. It was something purely instinctive, and he was sure that he and Ariela being part alien that had really strong pack instincts was a big deal here. Ariela somehow was comforting, her smell changed to something stronger and earthier when he was feeling down and it reminded him of home, of the few memories he had with his parents. Her warmth, her purring and her scent made him feel okay.

"We think that the Galra might have traitors in their lines," Ariela said, still speaking from Keith's neck. "There were sentinels that had been hacked to fight on the rioter's side, and Pidge is sure that they needed outside help."

"We should tell this to Allura the second we see her," Nallely said, finally approaching them. Sugey snaked herself in the middle of Ariela's and Keith's hug, only making Ariela's purring loud enough so that they could all hear it.

_She's so adorable_ Shiro thought with a smile.

_You are right. Why don't you tell her?_ Black butted in.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The joke Lance thought of was "The only boss you'll be facing today will be my monster cock" and it was so hilarious, but the boy appreciates his life, thank you very much.  
> I am so sorry that it took so long for me to update, but as I explained before, I went on a two-week vacation. It was pretty cool, taking my psycho mother away from the business: I met a bunch of backpackers at a beach and we played the guitar, sang and drank mate, fernet with coke and beer. Then I jumped from a dock to a like that was 42° Fahrenheit when the outside was 90°, so I experienced the feeling of the cold constricting my lungs and heart :D  
> Also I passed my FCE with a 183 score over 190 and I something relating to this fic came to my mind suddenly and I hope and think you will really like it ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) .  
> Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the backstory, the klance, Matt's appearence and Keith's and Ariela's bonding moment.  
> I may or ay not be planning some angst for the future chapters (meaning I totally am).  
> Love ya, Q.


	33. [NOT UPDATED]

All the conditions were given for them to jump down into the pillow pit and repeat the cuddle pile from when they were at Keskeuro, but the team was content with sitting down on the couches in the living room, somehow managing to either be touching everyone or have everyone at reach. The somehow being Hunk moving the couches together as if they were a couple of grapes.

They were all incredibly quiet despite no one being actually asleep, as they all had the stuff to think about. 

Keith was trying to push away the teasing from the Galra soldiers (What makes you think you are different from us, paladin?), but it was hard because the damned "What if...?" was always there. What if they were right? If he was not different and it was just a matter of time for him to turn into a violent and hatred-filled monster? Was that something that ran in his blood? And if it ran in his blood, how the hell had it gotten there? He barely remembered his parent's faces, because he had been a baby when they disappeared, but he had pictures, and none of them looked purple.

Pidge was mute and unmoving. Her brother had looked _so very_ different. But he was alive, anger-driven, but alive. The only problem was that she had found him too late; now he had probably been relocated, and he might even be being tortured now that the Galra had found him being the head of their first riot ever, and knowing Matt's big and loose mouth he would probably make things worse. It ran in the family after all. At least she knew that one of them was still kicking.

On the other side, Shiro's side, Matt was alive! He was alive, he hadn't died. Was he allowed to feel less guilty about leaving him behind now that he knew that he was alive? No, because, with the Galra, being alive mostly meant something worse than being dead. All kinds of torture. He could still remember his first week in the Galra prison: no sleeping, no eating and barely drinking. He had passed out from exhaustion so many times, only to be awakened by Haggar piercing into his brain for information, the feeling similar to having nails digging on your skull. It was either that or bored guards that wanted to play with electricity, enjoying the show that the prisoners put while contorting and screaming as they were electrocuted.

Ariela noticed. She felt Shiro's change of thoughts from every sense she had. The smell, his heartbeat, his breathing (the sharp intake of breath) and the sudden and shaking pull of the bond, that made not only her head rise and turn towards Shiro with worry. She imagined what he might be thinking about, but she had her own hurricane causing destruction in her own brain. There were so many questions. First of all, she still had to talk with Desa about the murder of Hogg's daemon. Then, there was the hating herself because "It is dangerous, Keith. That's what it is!"? Seriously? What had happened with no man is left behind? She hadn't even blinked while stating that she wouldn't actively fight to get a fellow human and a war prisoner out of a dangerous place just because it was dangerous. Since when did she stop doing stuff because it was dangerous? Oh, but that was not the main problem, no no. The main problem was this wild and animalistic anger that had partially blinded her. Suddenly, killing was nothing, killing was something that she might even enjoy, just because she was seriously mad at those soldiers. In those moments, she could imagine herself reaping their hearts out with her own hands and she would have hummed in pleasure and content.

She hadn't feared herself that much ever since the whole bisexual deal.

Lance stepped into the room and the first thing he did was do a head count. Relief washed over him when he noticed that no one was missing, but then he was suddenly overcome by dread. Everyone was feeling down, especially Keith. He could see the ears sticking to his skull and the way he had curled up in himself to be as small as he could.

"What happened?" he asked, almost trotting towards the cube of couches that they had made, and Keith lifted his head at the sound of his voice. He looked really affected by something, so Lance almost immediately caught him in a tight hug, pressing flush against his chest and burying his face on Keith's neck.

"Ariela, Pidge and I went to a Galra colony to investigate a riot," Keith answered, taking in Lance's scent and almost shivering. It refreshed his mind, almost as if it was actual ocean breeze. "We need to talk later," he whispered then, looking at Lance in the eye with a serious look, and his boyfriend nodded quickly. He needed to tell him about Ariela's sort of trance.

"How did the meeting go?" Hunk asked, sitting up, as Allura and Desa walked into the room, Coran by their side looking a little bit down. Allura immediately averted their gaze and Desa gulped before answering. Lance was fidgeting, just like the queen, who suddenly seemed too interested in her own fingers and Camlei's swishing tail at her feet.

"We planned to cover several topics, but the council decided to focus on just one tonight, so we didn't..., advance as much as we would have wanted to," she said, clearing her throat at the end of the phrase, and Lance liked his lips and looked down.

"You talked about the kills, right?" Shiro asked, and the silence was an affirmative. "Where civilians included?" Allura opened her mouth to protest, but Lance spoke first.

"I have the highest number, so don't worry," he said, still looking at the floor and jaw clenching.

God, no one could ever imagine how much he wished that was a lie to calm down Shiro and the rest, but it wasn't. He had the highest rate of civilians deaths and the lowest on enemies. Ariela had the highest of enemies, and Hunk the lowest on civilians, numbers that didn't surprise anyone who knew them, but still.

Keith was looking at him wide-eyed, a little bit teary even, and just when Lance thought he would break apart (surprised, disappointed eve) he kissed him. It was a harsh press of lips that lasted long, just to be followed by many small peppered kisses over his cheeks, nose and eyes. He cupped his face and looked at him with a determination that Lance had never seen on him.

"Don't you dare to beat yourself over it. Those numbers are probably wrong, and we all know that it's me the one that must have more... Lance, look at me," he ordered him in the moment the blue paladin tried to move his face away. Keith knew really well that it was so that he wouldn't be able to see how the last string of self-composture snapped and the tears started to well; he had done it many times. "It must be a small number, you can't..."

"Four hundred and fifty-six people, Keith," he said, and he tried to hide the crack in his voice with a small laugh. "I think that's a pretty big number."

"Actually, it was four hundred and fifty-five," Allura said softly as if that would help, and Ariela growled.

"Keep Sean out of this, Lance."

"It's still a pretty high number, and it's mine," he snapped, raising his voice slightly.

"Listen, darling," Ariela started getting up and crawling around in the cube to get out of it without kneeling Shiro in the stomach and stand up. "We'll fish you out of your sea of self-loathing later, but now there's something we all have to talk about, including queen Desa," she said, turning to face the woman, who lifted her head immediately at hearing her name.

"What is it?" Pidge asked, frowning, as she sat up too.

"Yesterday at the ball, Vonj told me that Hogg used to have a daemon. And that Camlei killed it," Ariela explained, signalling at the cougar resting at the queen's feet. He also stood up stiffly when the woman spoke, eyeing his other half warily.

"What?" Sugey asked, sounding outraged but hugging Yaretzi close to her chest and making herself smaller, the little fox licking the tip of her nose to comfort her. She knew that the thought of her dying had crossed the girl's mind.

Desa gulped again, but this time she didn't look down. She held her chin high and challenged Ariela with all of her body, just like Camlei. They both adopted a solemn pose that made Ariela clench her jaw and prepare for being accused of lying, or at least listening to people she shouldn't listen, but...

"It's true. Camlei did kill Hogg's daemon," the queen said, letting out a huff of air with her words. "But it was not because I asked, and we don't really know why," she added, eyeing her daemon, who relaxed a little bit.

"I have no memory of doing it. I just remember waking up surrounded by guards and..., the rat was dead before me," he said, making them all frown at the animal.

"Rat?" Coran asked.

"He doesn't mean to depreciate him, it's just that Hogg's daemon was a rat. He was killed three months ago," Desa explained.

"I thought that if you killed a daemon, the other half died," Nallely said softly. Ilayi was resting on her shoulder, the small piece of armour that had been prepared for her to cover her shoulder from the deadly claws almost going unnoticed. Te weight of it felt right. The daemon rubbed her head gently against Nallely's cheek, making her smile softly.

"No. If the person dies, the daemon dies, but it's not the other way around. What happens is that you are left with a big void inside, it's worse that never meeting your daemon. It is said that it's almost as bad as your child dying," Desa explained. "There are not many that overcame their daemon's death; most end up with severe brain damage because of the loss and end up taking their own lives. It is considered a form of torture, and something illegal. That's why the daemon and their other half get hung," she finished, hugging herself and taking in a shaky breath.

"So you should be hanged," Allura said, and Desa nodded.

"The guards were going to kill me right there and then, because I'm more powerful than them and I could have easily escaped. I was still in shock at the moment. But the Oracle stopped them, and when Hogg walked out of it like nothing, they just shrugged it off."

Ariela frowned. Hogg's daemon had died, and the man hadn't suffered at least a little bit?

"If knowing this makes you want to leave or... Stay somewhere else until the alliance is formed it's okay. My alies can host you," Desa murmured, finally dropping her head, crown almost falling down with the movement. Allura spoke almost immediately.

"We'll stay tonight and we'll see what we do tomorrow." Desa lowered her head with a soft and faked smile.

"I'll leave you alone to discuss it then," she said, before nodding at them politely and marching away, with Camlei following suit. Once the door to the living room closed behind her, Pidge spoke.

"I CALL BULLSHIT!" she screamed. "There're so many things that are wrong in that story! And not against them," she continued, finally getting off the couch and starting to pace around the carpeted floor, frowning and humming as she thought. It was like the sound of a computer turning on and starting to work, the hum of the fans turning on.

"Pidge is right. If losing your daemon is so mentally scarring then I believe it wasn't Hogg's daemon at all," Keith muttered, flopping down in the new free space, and trying to drag Lance along with him.

"Whatever our conclusion is, we stay. Wary, but we stay. We can't afford to loose this alliance because of some petty marital argument," Allura said, and Shiro wanted to remind her really hard that they were talking about an actual murder, but he just swallowed it down. "Besides, why would Camlei kill the rat?" she asked.

"I feel like we are in some kind of Law and Order Space Special or something," Ariela muttered, making Keith snort. "I don't think we'll get to any conclusion without knowing the motive behind all of this, and we all had a really long day." 

"Ariela's right," Hunk started, getting up too. "We should all go to sleep and start the serious investigation tomorrow if we actually want to get involved." A look around told him that yes, they all wanted to actually get involved. "Then, good-night." And with that, he marched away.

# \- - -

"At least lay down with me," was Ariela's immediate response when Shiro told her that he didn't want to sleep that night.

"If I lay down I'll fall asleep. So no," he said, crossing his arms over his chest. The woman looked at him with narrowed eyes, trying to look threatening despite being in the middle of a nest of pillows and wearing her light blue pyjamas. She was still tiny despite having grown and having almost the same quantity of abs than Shiro.

"It's not good to go on without sleep, Shiro," she said, and he rolled his eyes.

"You're talking as if none of us had to go through finals," he said, but his little joke didn't lighten the mood, so he sighed and sat next to Ariela in the bed of her bedroom. There was silence for a few minutes, the only sound being Matt's soft snoring; he had curled up with Argentina in a corner of the room. "I don't want to see him," was what he said, looking down from the ceiling to his legs, head hanging heavy. "If I sleep I'll dream with him and I'll feel even worse than I'm feeling now," he finished, lips thinning into a straight line.

Ariela put a comforting hand on his shoulder and looked at him with eyes so soft it was incredible. It was hard to accept that this was the person with the highest body count.

"You didn't leave him behind, Shiro. You told me how it happened so many times I can _see it_ , and what you did wasn't abandoning. It was protecting. You saved him from the arena," Ariela told him, slowly shifting to sit on his lap. He had recently noticed that she did it to be at his eye level, even a little bit higher. "There is no real reason for you to feel guilty, despite from being the one that got out," she finished, caressing his cheek.

"I've been sleeping a lot lately. Just let me this night. Please?" he asked, and Ariela locked eyes with him for almost a whole minute before sighing.

"You will think about him tomorrow and the next day and the day after that. He won't leave your mind for months. You need to sleep anyways, Takashi, even if you have nightmares," she said, Shiro shivering at the sound of his first name. It was so weird for him, not even Lila had used it ever.

"What if it happens again? The time I punched you the night before arriving at Grigk?" he asked, biting his cheek.

"As if you were the first person to hit me ever," Ariela huffed, and he actually got mad.

"I've killed people with this, Ariela," he said, lifting his robot arm on the air. "What makes you think that I wouldn't do it while thinking you are someone attacking me while I'm dreaming?" he asked, and the woman grabbed his right hand and kissed the palm.

"I've killed people with this hands too, and they don't shine pretty purple nor make me look cooler," she said, winking at him and making Shiro roll his eyes. "You'll be little spoon, so you're not facing me. Okay?" she asked, starting to run her hands through Shiro's nape and scrap his nape softly, trying to get him to relax. "And if you wake up I'll sing you to sleep, just like I do every time it happens," she finished, resting her forehead against Shiro's shoulder, and he started rubbing up and down her back slowly.

"You are the one who fought today. I should be pampering you," he said with a soft smile before he realised the words that had escaped from his lips. His hands stilled and Ariela lifted her head, eyes slightly wider and the faintest blush covering her cheeks, but she quickly dismissed it with a smile.

"You can pamper me if you want, you know? How would you pamper me?" she asked, and Shiro's heart stopped for a second. She was smiling tiredly but with a kind of love that was sort of weird and confused him. It was as if she was waving something he wanted to have but couldn't have in front of his eyes. It made his heart shrink and ache a little, but he also dismissed it with a smile.

"Lots of rubs, hugs, and kisses," was his answer, as he pecked her on the cheek.

"Hmh. I definitely like that idea," she hummed, closing her eyes in content and starting to purr as Shiro continued to rub her back slowly, peppering more kisses all over her face and then shoulders. "But you will seriously try to sleep?" she asked in a wary tone, and Shiro sighed.  
"I'll try," he said.

# \- - -

"Stop smiling."

"Stop being so cute," Lance replied immediately, smile only widening as Keith's face turned a deeper purple and his ears stuck to his skull. "The second we are done with the Galra empire I'm locking you up in my room and kissing every inch of you," he said, before rolling them both, to make Keith lay on his back, Lance's forearms at the sides of his head to keep him up.

"I thought that you were the kind that liked being worshipped, not the one to worship," Keith said, turning his head to the side and nuzzling Lance's arm softly. 

"Well, I like both, but out of us you deserve the worshiping more," he hummed, before leaning down and kissing Keith softly and slowly.

He was so not used to that. Because, no, it wasn't his first kiss. But he was used to being roughly kissed by strangers at some cheap club, them smelling of alcohol and sometimes even cigarettes and sweat. It was always ravishing, the other person pressing him up against the wall until it was hard to breathe, kissing clumsily and harshly, sometimes making his lip bleed and leaving drool behind. But this? Being comfortable, laying back in a bed while his _boyfried_ kissed him sweetly while smelling of his signature scent and floral Goridian soap was something completely new.

They parted with a kiss and Keith took advantage of Lance being distracted by looking lovingly at him to cup his face and ask:

"How are you feeling?"

The question made the blue paladin's eyes darken in that exact moment. It was like seeing the sun suddenly disappear upon the ocean; clear and bright blue water suddenly turned dark and mysterious, the depths kind of frightening. He dropped on top of Keith's chest, making him huff out his breath, and nosed at his collar bone.

"Great. Haven't been better," was his answer, and Kieth frowned at him. The soft growl rumbling in his boyfriend's chest let Lance know that he was mad. "Okay, I'm feeling like a mountain of crap bigger that the Everest, but what did you expect Keith? Highest number of civilians' deaths?" He snaked his arms around Keith's waist and held him tightly, taking in a deep breath. "I thought you'd hate. Be disgusted," he said, and Keith's heart rate picked up.

"What? Disgusted because you are risking your life to save the entire universe despite not having asked for it and some people being harmed because you're standing up to a tyrannic empire?" he asked, urging Lance to look at him. Seeing him so sad make his heart ache. "You are not guilty of those deaths, Lance," he added, before kissing Lance's neck, just behind his pulse point, where the scent was stronger. "You can't blame yourself for everything."

"I don't blame myself for your body count, or Shiro's, or Pidge's," Lance mumbled, pouting like a five-year-old.

"Please stop that, mine," Sean said from a corner of the room. Ara was sleeping on top of her, and the tiger's eyes shone bright like a blue neon light in the dark. "Those lives were lost saving thousands," she added, feeling Lance's non-content when she scolded him.

"You know what?" Keith asked, kissing Lance in that spot again. "Let's make a deal."

"Oh, I'm listening," Lance said, gulping and suddenly feeling his mouth go dry at the foreign glimmer in Keith's eyes, sly and devious. 

"You are not allowed to beat yourself over something until we win this war. Then, when I have time to battle against your shitty brain, you can cry as much as you want," he said, resting his forehead against Lance's. "And I'll hug you and cuddle you as much as you want to so it goes away. Okay?"

"Interesting. But, why do I get for waiting for what could be years to sulk?" he asked, smiling slyly and making Keith bite his lip.

"We can make out now, or I can make you wait until you accept the deal," Keith said, matching his smile.

"Now? But Sean is watching," Lance said, sounding a little bit shy.

"Sean won't tell," Keith said, catching Lance's lips in one of those slow kisses that he liked to give him so much.

"Yeah, I won't tell," Sean said, resting her head on the floor and closing her eyes, as she covered her ears with her paws, making Keith laugh.

"So? What do you say?" he asked, and Lance answered with a hum and by catching Keith's bottom lip between his teeth and pulling teasingly, making Keith's blood start to run faster to both his cheeks and South. What had happened to Lance's loving eyes and soft, innocent touching?

"Deal," he practically breathed out, before needily leaning forward and kissing Kieth how he was used to: hard, rough and messy. The surprise made the red paladin gasp, as his hands flew to grip Lance's biceps, enjoying the feeling of them clenching as he made the effort to put himself up, and then moan when a warm tongue slipped inside his own mouth, moving with a perfectioned technique that made Keith's eyes flutter shut. Lance echoed his moan, squeezing Keith's hips hard for a few seconds before softening his grip.

"That noise," he said when they finally broke the kiss, already panting. Keith's night-vision was shit, but even with the little moonlight coming through the window, he could tell the sudden growth of Lance's pupils. "I love it," he finished, chasing Keith's lips once more, making the red paladin's lungs struggle to suck in some breath because _damn_ , that was hot like a fucking volcano.

Lance quickly licked inside Keith's mouth, tongue sliding against the roof of his mouth and making him whimper, before leaning away, sitting down in Keith's hips and yanking his t-shirt over his head by the collar, making Keith gulp once more.

"How far do you want to go?" Lance asked, licking his lips as he felt the somewhat familiar pressure against his ass.

Keith's mind flung itself out of the window, along with the thought of him having to tell Lance about Ariela's weird state that afternoon.

# \- - -

He fell asleep in the end, and he managed to sleep an hour and a half before waking up sweating, crying and yelping, dragging Ariela up with him. She got up growling, looking around for any danger in her hazed state, but as she slowly actually woke up, she noticed that Shiro had just woken up from a nightmare, so she helped him breathe normally again and started singing "Of the night", as she drew shapes in Shiro's back. She fell asleep singing, words starting to slur and languages starting to mix, and Shiro knew he wouldn't be going to sleep anytime soon, so he just turned around and watched her sleep.

Her face was half smashed against her pillow, making her cheeks seem puffier and her lips pout, a little spot of drool darkening the fabric.

God, he didn't remember pinning being so painful. Because he had had his fair share of impossible crushes back in the day. There was Ana Julia, in fifth grade, that chose their classmate Máximo over him because she didn't like Shiro's eyes, Lara, from high school, that had smiled awkwardly when he confessed and told him that she didn't want to ruin their friendship. Even Lila had been an impossible crush at some point, but she had broken up with her previous boyfriend and Shiro had gotten closer, taking his chance. He remembered it being a big bother, something that stole your thoughts and made your stomach and heart twist in ugly shapes when you saw or heard something you didn't like, but he didn't remember it _aching_ and _consuming_.

Maybe he was in deeper than he thought. And there he was, playing with fire, being friends with benefits with this woman he might be painfully in love with, while she saw him only as a... How did Ariela see him? A friend? A teammate? Maybe even an acquaintance. Nah, you wouldn't share things like they shared with an acquaintance. But Ariela was certainly peculiar; it seemed like you didn't quite know what your relationship with her was because she would sometimes exchange information about her to get some from you.

Shiro rubbed his face, feeling a headache coming. He was going to have to ask Lance, and he didn't want to ask Lance. Maybe he could get Keith to suck the information out of him. Oh, God, what an awful choice of words.

He had thought about so many things by the time Ariela woke up that he had an actual headache, snapping out of his deep thought state when Ariela hummed and hugged him closer, slowly opening his eyes and smiling at him, making him groan mentally. This didn't make anything any better.

" _Bom dia_ ," (Good morning) she hummed with a cheesy smile.

" _Bom dia_ ," he answered with a smile, despite wanting to fly with the black lion into the nearest sun.

_Keep me out of your human drama_ Black snarled in his mind.

"You're up really early," he noticed, frowning, as he rubbed up Ariela's arm, making her nuzzle closer and start to purr.

"I like the breakfast here, and if I wake up too late I don't get any, so I mentalise myself to wake up early to eat," she answered, making Shiro snort and laugh.

# \- - -

They all had breakfast together with Desa and Hogg. Allura just addressed their conversation from last night by saying that they would be staying and giving the queen a gentle smile. They knew they would probably have a meeting back at the Castle about everything (Hogg's daemon and the riot at Yaytera, along with Matt Holt, probably), just after breakfast, because Lance, Allura and Coran would have to go to the meetings about the global alliance.

They were all tired; the day before had been a moved one and it was really early.

Seeing Lance and Keith walk into the dining room together with faces of satisfaction and a few hickeys and bite marks was what woke them up (and made Shiro choke on his tea). Hunk followed Lance with his eyes as he went to sit down next to him and turned to look at his best friend with a smile that went from one ear to the other.

"Bro," was the only thing Lance said.

"Bro?" Hunk asked. Lance nodded and smiled even more.

" _Bro_ ," and with that Hunk chuckled and rose his eyebrows.

"How the fuck did he understand him?" Pidge questioned, squinting at both of them. She turned to look at Ariela, but the woman seemed just as confused as she was.

"Did you mate?" Sugey asked, and Shiro choked on his tea once again.

"It seems to be a sensitive subject for humans, Sugey. You can't just go around, asking them about that," Nallely told her sister, but she was smiling devilishly as she looked at Keith's hickeys (that were hard to see because purple over purple didn't really stand out). The paladin narrowed his eyes at her.

"Please leave the taunting for later. We need to get breakfast quickly. We meet at the Castle in twenty minutes," Allura said, but her voice didn't sound so authoritative with the cheesy smile she was wearing.

The chill went away the second that they were seated in their now official spot in the living room of the Castle, screaming insults and dirty jokes back and forth. Keith was fuming at Ariela and Pidge, who couldn't stop questioning who topped and who bottomed. Then, he would shoot back by asking in what position Ariela and Shiro had done it last night, and although Ariela answered "cowgirl" with a wink (totally not feeling awkward), Shiro turned as red as Mars and seemed on the verge of crying, as Lance gagged and tried to claw his eyes out.

"Okay, people, calm down. You can discuss your sex lives when we're done with the actual exciting stuff," Allura said, sitting down in her designated sofa with her chin held high, making Hunk snort.

"Oh, burn," he chuckled, as the blush from hearing his friends talk about sex slowly faded away.

"I want the mission report from yesterday," Allura said, nailing her eyes on Ariela, and the cheesy smile faded away. She spoke with no emotion, scratching the fabric of a cushion she was hugging tightly against her chest but not evading Allura's piercing eyes. She felt like she was being judged by every decision she had made, and having to say how she had told Keith that Matt was not a priority out loud in front of Shiro and Pidge made her skin tingle and her cheeks and neck redden in shame.

When she was over, she looked around to see Pidge sulking at Shiro playing nervously with the hem of his shirt, jaw clenched and eyes down.

"You did the right thing. It was indeed very dangerous. Pidge escaping like that could have gotten all of you killed," Allura finally said, leaning back against the back of her sofa again, sighing. "From what you say, it seems like there _are_ traitors in the Galran lines," she mumbled.

"If we could know who they are and why they do it, it would be great," Coran said, looking at Ariela with eyes that hid many thoughts.

"Yes," Allura said. She put both of her hands together and pressed them against her lips and nose, thinking as she looked into the void. Everyone exchanged confused looks, not knowing what to do, until she took in another breath. "I have a plan for the time we stay at Goridion," she announced, sitting with her back right again.

"How long will we be staying?" Sugey asked, frowning.

"The negotiations are going slow, and by the number of data the other kings and queens want to go over, it might be even a month or more," Lance said. "Someone even putting us to test against the best warriors they had."

"It will be much time, and while Lance, Coran and I manage the diplomacy issues you can't just sit around and train. No, no. Pidge, I want you to install a stealth device on the black panther as soon and fast as you can," Allura started looking at the girl. "Of course Hunk and Coran will help you," she added.

"Why only Bagheera?" Ariela asked in a whisper, looking up at Allura.

"I used to believe that you were as impulsive as Keith, maybe even more, but you have shown to be quite sensible when the situation requires it," Allura started, looking at the woman with some sort of pride. "There are many things that we need to get for the Castle from different planets, and you being away from the rest of Voltron wouldn't be an issue if there's a sudden attack. Over that, I want you to be our spy."

Ariela's eyes opened wide and her ears perked up, just like Keith's. Everyone seemed surprised by that.

"Nallely would go with you. It would basically be nearing Galran territories that aren't hot spots and gathering information. How many guards there are, the weapons and ships they have, if they have occupated the entirety of the surface, what their shifts are like. Evry little detail counts. If there are patterns in the race of the Galra or the prisoners, if there is some motive to put certain prisoners together or it's just decided by a roll of dice, what is done on that planet. Anything could help. And you are also the only Voltron face that the empire doesn't know, so you can go to colonies and actually search for information instead of watching from the distance."

"Why do we need to know all of that?" Shiro asked, frowning, and Allura's eyes turned to him and he almost leant away. Everything in her aura screamed because I say so. Aryeh, her daemon, rumbled contently, noticing the alpha attitude his half had taken.

"War isn't won only in unwanted battles, Shiro. You should know that," she said, and it made everyone want to _ohhhhh, snap_ , but they didn't because they were too afraid of Allura even looking at them slightly mad. "With all of that data, we could know which colonies to strike and when to do it. Which ones are vital and which ones would be empty victories," she explained herself.

"And the rest? What would we do?" Hunk asked.

"You will help Sugey and Pidge manage the new information and train, until next week. Once we have given away all of out shameful facts, I'm letting Lance go from the court. His ability to make big losses look unimportant won't be needed once we only talk about our wins. Then, Voltron will be back and we start using that information to destroy the pillars that are holding the empire up."

There was silence, everyone just letting the new plan sink in.

"Also, I've taken care of the Hogg's daemon business. I talked about it with Desa and explain to her how we think it must be some kind of ardid, and she got someone to start snooping around. She said to my face that she doesn't trust Hogg one bit," she added.

"That's right. She said that, lately, the prince has been disappearing to do as he pleases and letting his work pile up. And that lord Vonj you mentioned? He is the brother of one of Velime's biggest enemies, and one of Hogg's best friends," Coran added, looking at Ariela.

"He said that they were supporting Velime in the court," Ariela muttered, and Lance snorted.

"He was trying to get into your pants. You should have heard what the sister said to me," he laughed, making Keith huff and pout. He almost instantly went to nuzzle at his boyfriend's neck, murmuring things like "But she stands no chance against you, babe".

"That's great, but I have a question," Pidge said, leaning forward. "What are we going to do about my brother?" she asked, nailing her eyes on Allura, challenging her to not care about Matt. Instead, the princess lifted her chin.

"We will try to retrieve him and know if your father is alive too. Once Ariela gets more comfortable with the spying area we can start to enter enemy's bases and try to extract information," Allura answered, nodding to Ariela with a reassuring smile, making the other woman want to cry. She hadn't signed up for this shit.

Pidge leant back on her seat, mildly satisfied, and the princess looked around the group, checking if anyone else wanted to ask anything.

"So? Are we all set?" Allura asked, getting up. There was just an hour left for them meetings to start, and they should be there in forty minutes. "Pidge, when do you think the stealth device will be ready?" she asked.

"With Coran's and Hunk's help? Maybe by tonight if we work all day," the girl asked, frowning and looking at her lap as she made calculations.

"Okay," Allura said, nipping at her lip as she thought. "Nallely, you'll come with me and Lance. Keith and Shiro, I want you to do stealth exercises with Ariela. The rest, try to teach Sugey all that you can, overall you, Coran," the princess said, before turning around. "I'll go meet Desa now. I want to see you in the portal in thirty minutes, Lance."

And with that, she was gone, leaving an awestruck team behind. Pidge was the first one to clear her throat.

"Is it me or Allura is getting..., _more alpha_ lately?" she asked, and no one even turned to look at her, eyes sticking to the elevator in which Allura had disappeared.

"I don't know what it is but it amazes me and scares me at the same time," Hunk answered, before getting up. "Anyway, we all have stuff to do, guys, so we better start working," he added, clamping a hand in Pidge's shoulder and the other in Sugey's. "Are you two ready to science?"

"Do you have enough energy to train? Did you sleep last night?" Ariela asked Shiro instead, bu he just nodded it off.

"I'm great, but I don't know how to activate the stealth exercises," he said, and Coran smiled at him.

"I'll do it for you."

# \- - -

The stealth exercises had been a lot of fun. Exhausting, but fun.

Once that she was able to succeed in the exercise three times in a row, Ariela announced that she would be taking a break and that Keith and Shiro should do the same. So they had all ended up in the common room, Ariela napping on the sofa and the two men in the pillow pit, watching Pacific Rim and chatting in whispers.

The woman was dreaming with punching an orange guy with an ugly toupee when everything went dark.

_Paladin..._

Ariela turned around, only to find more void. The voice had sounded from..., everywhere. Almost as if the void around her had spoken. It had been a clear and profound voice.

"Who's...?" she started, before hearing a flapping sound behind her and turning to come face to face with..., some guy. Some guy dressed like an ancient king, dark skin that seemed to shine with its own energy, dark blue hair and eyes that..., held the sky itself.

"We don't have much time," he said, before stomping closer to Ariela and grabbing her hand with a soft grip. A spark of recognition crossed his eyes and he smiled at her dearly. "So, you are Raquia's chosen one," he said, lifting his gaze and locking eyes with her. He lifted his other hand to tuck a lock of hair behind Ariela's ear.

"What?" she said in a breathless whisper. She felt like she had a rope tied around her waist pulling her closer to the _some guy_ , and when she frowned, the man's smile doused and his image flickered to Shiro. Shiro in the clothes he had worn for Keskeuros ritual, smiling lovingly at her in a way that set her heart on fire.

"He is after me," some guy said, Shiro's image fading away to give place to him again. He was still smiling at her, and he spoke with a calm voice that didn't quite fit the urgency of his words. It made Ariela feel sleepy and relaxed. "It will take a lot of time for him to be able to get me, but if I didn't let one of you know now it wouldn't happen," he added.

"Who's after you?" she asked, and the love disappeared from his eyes, and the image flickered again. First, it was an Altean, judging by the red marks on his cheeks, similar to Allura's and Coran's, but then it was a Galra, with purple eyes and a thin scar that went from his left eye to his lip. The image flickered back and forth between them, the change speeding up until it was hard to tell one person apart from the other.

"If he gets me it will be the end." The image snapped back to some guy's, and now his face did match the urgency of the situation. "You need to stick together, don't let him divide you. Understood, _hubein_?" he asked, cupping Ariela's face fully, making her eyes open widely. "Jesus, it is hard to see the real you when you are her mirror," he chuckled.

"I'm terribly sorry, but I don't get anything of what you're saying," she said in a confused and desperate whisper. The image flickered back to Shiro's, who rested his forehead against her and took in a deep breath.

"Soon you will all be in terrible danger, you have to listen to Alkat's and Boquiem's protegee," he said, licking his lips, as a tear streamed down his face.

"We're running out of time, Siquem," a new voice said, and someone else appeared behind some guy, also dressed like a king, red eyes that shone like fire piercing her with so many mixed feelings that it took Ariela's breath away.

"I hadn't seen her in so long, Ferek. Please," some guy still wearing Shiro's image murmured, actually softly crying, and it made the woman's heart clench and a whimper escape, as he leaned close and kissed her slowly, holding her face carefully, as if she were going to break, or as if she had sharp edges that would cut his hands if he did it too forcefully. The pull at her waist was getting stronger.

"She is not the actual Raquia, Siquem. We have to leave now," the other man said, putting a hand on some guy's shoulder, making him separate from Ariela and turn back to his actual image. He smiled softly at her again and caressed her cheek with his thumb.

"Take a lot of care," he said.

And then she woke up.

"Hey, hey. You're okay, don't cry," Shiro was telling her as he rocked her from side to side. She was sitting in his lap, body limp and head resting on his shoulder, as Keith rubbed her back diligently, looking at her with concerned eyes.

"It's you?" she asked, lifting his head to look at Shiro, and yes, it was the actual Shiro, still dressed in his training clothes and the love of someone that had fallen and had accepted it gone from his eyes, there was only worry and slight panic. "It's you," she sighed with relief, letting her head drop again.

"What happened? You were crying in your sleep," Keith asked, leaning closer. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"I... I dreamed with a guy that changed images," she started, sitting straight. "First he changed to you." Shiro's eyes opened in surprise. "Then to an Altean man and then to a Galra," she finished, frowning in confusion. She could slightly feel the pull at her waist from her dream. It was extremely faint, but it was there.

She missed Shiro and Keith exchanging worried looks.

"H... What did the Galra look like?" Shiro asked.

"He was huge and scary. His eyes were not yellow, they were purple, and he had a scar," Ariela described, showing them with her finger where the scar was, and Keith's shoulders tensed.

"That is Zarkon," he said, almost in a whisper.

"The guy from my dream told me that _he_ was going after him, and when I asked who he changed to the Altean and the Galra, over and over again," she added, and Shiro began to softly push her off his lap to make her stand up.

"We need to talk about this with Coran," he said, standing up too and grabbing Ariela's hand to pull her towards the door.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those who are curious, no. Keith and Lance didn't do it, although they had lots of fun anyways.  
> You could say this is the "turning point" in the novel; from here on in, things start to slowly (or maybe not so slowly) get darker and the actual plot starts to emerge from the depths.  
> Well, I hope you are liking it so far. I have been uploading a lot of content in the novel-related blog (thenewbohemianq), and ended up deciding creating a personal blog (tnbquimey). If you want to talk about anything that is not novel-related you can message me there (don't be afraid, I don't bite and I'm probably more socially inept that anyone you know).  
> Anyways, see you next chapter. Love ya!  
> Q.


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